Montville ― A decade has passed, but the emotions remain raw.

Wednesday marked 10 years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. While those 20 children and six teachers never will return home to their families, Montville Youth Services and the Youth Action Council made sure their 26 lives will not forgotten.

On Wednesday night, outside of the community center, the two organizations held a luminary ceremony to remember the lives lost and to mark the 10 years that have passed.

“This is just a reminder that this can happen in any community at anytime,” Director of Youth Services Barbara Lockhart said to the 40 people in attendance.

A sea of green bags lined the from walkway of the building, each with a green ribbon on the back and a green glow stick inside. In an effort to make it a community-wide event, every school in town helped to decorate each bag. While some read messages such as “Sending love Sandy Hook”, “Not forgotten but remembered” and “Forever in our hearts,” others had portraits.

Rachel Berube’s art class at Tyl Middle School drew the 26 individual portraits of those killed on 26 bags. Lockhart explained that she has talked with Newton’s youth services director and that those portraits will be sent to the town to be displayed in its memorial.

“The hurt probably resonates for those families for the rest of their days and we want our kids to be able to recognize that and become sympathetic and empathetic people,” Lockhart said.

Lockhart opened the brief ceremony with a few words to the public, who were wearing green for the event, before Montville High School student, Josie English, read the 26 names of those who were killed. A moment of silence followed before guests were invited inside for hot cider, hot cocoa and cookies.

The Youth Action Council is divided into two groups, one for the middle school students and one for the high school, but both helped with the event. The purpose of the council is to teach children about their community, giving back and building character.

For three of the high school students involved, they felt the connection to those who were killed and want to see a change for the better.

“Remembering it tonight not only remembers the event that happened, but it brings awaresness to people our age,” said Addie Concascia, a senior at Montville High School.

Concascia said she was in fifth grade at the time of the tragedy and remembers some of that day. She explained that students today are trained in ALICE, which is a five-step method to safely handle armed-intruder scenarios, and that mental health and gun control should be discussed to make sure school shootings stop.

“It’s really important to honor the past but also to focus on the future and what we can do to prevent it,” Concascia said.

Junior Daniel Barberi liked how the event was simple enough for young kids to understand and be apart of without taking away from its significance. Barberi remembered not learning of the details of the tragedy until middle school and wants students and educators to understand that this can happen anywhere.

Senior Brendan Duhamel put himself in the shoes of the victims. He recognized that they never got to experience middle school or high school, or go to a prom or enjoy graduation or even apply to colleges. He understood that the impact was felt across the state and that communities need to come together.

“This was such a traumatic event for everyone and those kids who passed away 10 years ago would’ve been our age and they just had so much life left ahead of them,” Duhamel said.

He echoed similar thoughts to those of Gov. Ned Lamont, who announced all flags to fly at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Wednesday.

“The tragedy that occurred on this date ten years ago is one of the worst in our state’s history. Our hearts will forever be with the twenty innocent and gentle young children whose lives were taken all too soon, and the six courageous and devoted educators who lost their lives in protection of the students they heroically guarded. I continue to pray for their families and friends that they are blessed with peace and love,” Lamont said in part of a statement Tuesday.

Barberi reminded everyone to not let those lives become statistics in history.

“We need to remember the people, not the statistics,” Barberi said. “We need to remember the names and faces to these numbers.”

k.arnold@theday.com