'Rock Of Angels' Finds A Home In Sandy Hook

The rock from Maine rolled into Newtown Monday afternoon -- passing under the I-84 overpass to an appreciative crowd.

"There were tears in my eyes," said Don Cummings of the Peacekeepers' Organization, who traveled alongside the "rock of angels" on its 12-stop tour from Ellsworth, Maine to Newtown.

Called the "Rock of Angels," it was designed by sculptor Richard Gray and a team of stonecutters from rock dug from a gravel quarry in Maine. A 13-ton granite stone, it is equipped with LED lights and carved with the names of the victims of the Dec. 14 shooting. It now stands behind St. John's Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook -- dedicated in a ceremony 6:00 p.m. Monday.

"We led that stone all the way here, making all the stops along the way," said Kevin Ward, a member of the team who brought the stone through towns like Bangor, Augusta, Portland, Orchard Beach.

"It was amazing -- in every town we stopped in, there was at least one person with ties to Newtown."

Gray and his team started work on the project in December, digging the granite from a quarry in the snow.

"None of us even knew each other," said Adam Meyer, one of the sculptors who worked on the base. "It was all people who just came together ... It was like no other project. We all had a common goal."

After trying for months to find a spot for the stone, the space behind St. John's was prepared in a "whirlwind 24 hours" of activity, said church senior warden Bruce Moulthrop.

"It all started just one week ago," said Moulthrop. Working with the help of his wife Cheryl, her sister Janet Knapp, and local music teacher Sam Mihailoff, the church prepared the ground and made a place for the Rock of Angels over the course of a weekend.

"The mission was accomplished," said Mihailoff.

Click here to read the poem from 26 Seeds of Love inspired by the monument, submitted as a blog on Patch.