In October at the Columbine to Canyon motorcycle ride, organizer Dan Patino asked Columbine High School principal Frank DeAngelis where the Columbine Memorial was.
That’s when Patino discovered that fundraising was slow and work had barely begun on the permanent memorial in Clement Park overlooking the school.
The $1.5 million memorial still is about $167,000 short of completion, and Patino has come up with another motorcycle rally to help raise the remainder.
“We’re coming up on eight years,” Patino said of the nation’s worst school shooting, on April 20, 1999, in which 12 Columbine students and a teacher were slain.
“There is a huge chunk of closure that needs to be done through the memorial,” Patino said. “We want to raise the money in one day.”
On May 12, the Ride for Columbine Memorial Foundation will kick off at 11:30 a.m. from Centennial Community Church, 5890 S. Alkire St., and will travel to Lakeside Amusement Park for a day of unlimited rides and activities.
“This one should be bigger than the last, I hope,” said Patino, who formed the nonprofit C2CRide.org to assist schools with security.
The October ride, put together 10 days after a gunman took six hostages at Platte Canyon High School and killed student Emily Keyes before killing himself, attracted 7,200 motorcyclists and raised more than $65,000 for the “I Love U Guys” Fund.
Named for the last text message Keyes sent her parents, the fund has assisted the hostages and their families.
The ride will be separate from Columbine’s Community Day activities in Clement Park on the same day, with the school supporting Patino’s efforts.
“I think it’s time,” DeAngelis said of completing the memorial. “It will be a place where people can go and reflect upon what happened. … It really helps healing.”
DeAngelis said those who donate to the memorial “can come here and know they helped to build that.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
To participate or donate
For ride information, to register or to help, contact Dan Patino at 303- 271-1829, or go to C2CRide.org. Checks made out to C2C Ride can be deposited at any Chase bank or sent to C2C Ride, c/o Dan Patino, P.O. Box 16744, Golden, CO 80402.
For information about the memorial, go to columbinememorial.org.
