Colorado community comes together to support teachers after Evergreen High School shooting

After a school shooting in Evergreen shocked the Colorado community, residents are coming together to show their support for the teachers and staff who protected their children.

Earlier this week, Evergreen High School student Desmond Holly shot and critically injured two other students before taking his own life. Teachers and staff in Evergreen and nearby Wilmot Elementary School went into lockdown while authorities tried to stop the killer.

Now, the parents and community members want to honor those heroes for protecting their children.

"On Wednesday, I was at work, and I received a text from my 5th grade daughter that she could hear gunshots and that she was on lockdown," said Kyla Hines, whose daughter attends Wilmot. "And, when I finally was able to reunite with her, hours later, she told the story of the kindness and the calmness and the bravery of all of her teachers, many of whom have high schoolers right there at Evergreen High School that could look through their windows and see the horror that was happening. And they protected our children rather than protecting theirs."

The community gathered at Evergreen Lake to decorate banners, cards and more. Hines says the flags provided by the Evergreen Downtown Business Association and Sweetwater Boutique will line the streets of downtown Evergreen. They share messages of love and support for the local community.

Children, their families and other members of the community wrote cards to the staff of Evergreen High School and Wilmot Elementary School that Hines says they'll be delivering soon. They also created two signs, one for each school, and filled the sidewalks around the lake with messages of love and support.

"We also have this event because we want the Evergreen High School community to know that Wilmot stands with them and we're a family together and that we know this impacted as young as preschool students all the way to seniors in high school, and all of us are together in this community," said Hines.

She said they're also taking up collections for Wilmot Elementary School teachers.

"I don't know how you can ever repay a teacher for putting their lives at risk for your own child," Hines said. "But we're hoping to do something to show our gratitude for what they did."