Columbine 25 years later: Daniel Mauser Library a pillar of joy for the family
Sitting in the library at Columbine High School, his son's shoes on his feet, Tom Mauser doesn't focus on what happened 25 years ago. Instead, he reflects on the good happening inside another school thousands of miles away.
"We had been contributing monthly to an organization called Unbound and it was a young girl in Guatemala that was benefiting from that and after Columbine, they wrote to us and said we've received a number of donations in Daniel's name," Mauser said.
Roughly $77,000 was raised from those wanting to honor his son. It was enough to build a school where the little girl lived, and the Mauser family was asked to visit.
"It was like a six-room schoolhouse, pretty rudimentary by our standards, and then there were some buildings next door that were still under construction, 'Oh, what's that?' 'Oh, that's the high school we had enough money to do that also,'" Mauser recalls the guide telling them during their visit.
And then he learned of yet another building under construction
"It was such a joyous moment to hear a library... a library," he said, "They had enough money to build a library in another community, given that Daniel was killed in the library at Columbine."
It was the first in a town of roughly 20,000 people and the joy it brought he says put their own pain into perspective.
"We saw the smiles on these kids' faces and you think, 'Oh my God, what they go through every day... what they have been through... we've been through hell, too,' so have they," Mauser said.
Twenty-five years later he continues to receive photos and calls from travelers who come across that library, dedicated to Daniel Mauser.
"The proverbial something good coming out of the bad," Mauser said thinking back.
Tom Mauser continues his work as an advocate for gun control after helping to close a loophole in the Brady Bill his son alerted him to, he became a board member for the group, Colorado Cease Fire.
