Sandy Hook memorial dismantled

NEWTOWN, Conn., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Mementos on display in the Newtown, Conn., Town Hall in memory of the Sandy Hook shooting victims have been taken down, officials said.

Saturday was the final day for the public to view the thousands of cards, posters and other items on display before the memorial was taken down, The (Danbury, Conn.) News-Times reported.

Everything will be put into storage, except some items that will be given to the victims' families or some Newtown residents.

The Town Hall display was one of the last Sandy Hook memorials left in the city. A number of spontaneous memorials popped up after the Dec. 14 shooting, in which 20 students and educators were killed.

Most of those memorials were taken down around the end of December.

Volunteers have been working for the past few weeks cataloging the posters, cards and other mementos. Some wrote thank-you notes to the senders when return addresses were available.

Lynn Kovack, a clerk in the town's building department, said she sorted cards and letters for weeks while at her desk.

"We did our work, and also read and sorted," Kovack said. "You would be so touched at times, you'd start crying and everyone around you would cry with you."