More than 250 students stood silent and motionless around the solid wooden crosses commemorating the lives of Mounds View High School students Stephanie Carlson and Bridget Giere, both 16.
The girls died in a Thursday morning car crash in Arden Hills as they drove to the school, where they were both juniors. Samantha “Sammy” Redden, 17, was with her friends and was injured in the crash.
The loss of the girls has left their families, classmates and communities reeling.
But it has also inspired an “outpouring of love,” said Catherine Carlson, Stephanie Carlson’s mother, as she offered her mittens and scarf to students shivering in the damp cold at Monday afternoon’s memorial service at the crash site.
“This was amazing,” Carlson said. “I hope they never stop loving. … You hear about how our country is divided, but then you see this. This is positive. This is beautiful, and I’m just so thankful.”
Despite heavy traffic, a memorial took shape shortly after the crash at Ramsey County Road 96 and Old Highway 10.
Knowing students would continue visiting to leave tributes to their classmates, the school worked with Ramsey County to shut down the traffic lane closest to the memorial, allowing students safer access Monday afternoon.
“We’ve been going to school with all these girls since sixth grade, so it’s hard not to know them,” said junior class representative Jocelyn Landwehr. “The first few days have been sad. It’s been scary. People are really reflecting in many, many ways.”
More than 200 students were shuttled from the school in buses while an additional 50 students parked at the nearby North Heights Lutheran Church and walked to the site. The memorial was not only attended by the victims’ Mounds View classmates, but also by students from nearby Irondale High School in New Brighton and St. Agnes High School in St. Paul — which Carlson attended her freshman and sophomore years.
Since the crash, three large crosses have been constructed at the site using lumber donated by Beisswenger’s Hardware in New Brighton and Scherer Bros. Lumber Co. in Arden Hills, Mounds View Public Schools spokesman Colin Sokolowski said.
As they arrived at the site, students heaped flowers and teddy bears at foot of the crosses along with other tributes: a horseshoe entwined with wire and blue beads, a chain of blue origami stars, snowflake ornaments, solar-powered candles, a sign saying “Once a Mustang, Always a Mustang,” and a poem titled “I’m Spending Christmas with Jesus This Year.”
Afterward, the students stood silently in a ring around the memorial. After about 10 minutes, they moved closer, with the nearest students reaching out to touch the crosses. The students behind them placed their hands on their classmates’ shoulders and wrapped their arms around each other. Some cried. Others clasped hands and prayed.
They stood like that for nearly 15 minutes before returning to North Heights Lutheran and warming up with donated coffee, hot chocolate and cider.
Carlson, Giere and Redden “were all very strong young women, a light in the school,” said Paige Leiser, another junior class representative at Mounds View High School.
Carlson’s mother said the three were “best buds” who did everything together.
“I want Sammy to know that I love her, too,” she said.
Giere’s classmates said that she had one of the biggest smiles they’d ever seen, and that they never saw it fade, regardless of the situation. Even when Giere fell asleep at a tennis tournament and her coach and teammates piled all of their belongings in a wall around her as a prank, Giere just laughed in response, teammate Hallie Diekoff said.
“I can still remember her face when she woke up. She was super confused, but had the biggest smile. She was just laughing,” Diekoff said. “They were just a joy.”
Carlson’s friends from St. Agnes remembered her as “quirky,” “happy,” perpetually disorganized and kind to everyone she met.
“It didn’t matter what you looked like, it didn’t matter what grade you were in. Whoever you are, she would talk to you,” recalled Matt Connolly, a junior at St. Agnes.
Friends remembered her bringing in bags of homemade cookies or McDonald’s to share, and telling a friend that she “looked so cute,” despite the fact she was very obviously sick.
“Everything about her, we’ll miss,” Connolly said. “Our schools are supporting each other and that’s what it’s really about in this moment.”
The crash happened about 7 a.m. Thursday as the girls turned left from westbound County Road 96 onto Old Highway 10 and were struck by an eastbound vehicle on 96.
The driver of the other vehicle was not seriously injured. Redden remained hospitalized in stable condition Monday.
The crash remains under investigation.