A touching tribute to Newtown victims

THOMPSON, Conn. (WTNH) -- What happened in Newtown affected people all over the world and here at home where memorials have popped up across the state in the wake of the tragedy.
    
News 8 took a trip to Thompson where one man honored the victims by building his own beautiful tribute.

Their names and faces are now familiar: the children of Sandy Hook and the adults who tried to save them.

"They stopped it from being worse," said Jeff Hopkins. "I"m sure and they helped protect a lot of the kids."

A tragedy touching the heart of Hopkins. A grandfather himself, he began building a memorial at his Thompson home a week after the December 14th shootings.

"I needed to do something to make some kind of memorial so just to...it helped me to deal with and to put my emotions, my feelings into something concrete," said Hopkins.

"Hearts Are Broken." Many stop by to share in the sentiment.

"It looks amazing," said Heidi Strain. "I mean look at it. He has all the kids names, and all the teachers' names...all the teachers."

Hopkins started out with the name, picture, and age of each child, but once he learned more about each of them he added touches to personalize the display.

Like Avielle who liked horses and Jack who loved the Giants.

"Josephine, I know her family just had a foundation and I just added the Ravens on it because I know she's a big fan of the Ravens from Baltimore and all that, and they started Joey's fund," Hopkins said.

A tribute to the young lives and the heroic efforts with the hope they will stir more than emotion.

"We need a change," said Hopkins, "we need to change something so it doesn't happen again."

Hopkins plans to leave the memorial up for at least another year and he will add to it as he learns more information about the children.