By Tory Cooney

St. Paul Pioneer Press

More than 250 students stood silent and motionless around the solid wooden crosses commemorating the lives of Mounds View High School students Stephanie Carlson and Bridget Giere, both 16.

The girls died in a Thursday morning car crash in Arden Hills as they drove to the school, where they were both juniors. Samantha “Sammy” Redden, 17, was with her friends and was injured in the crash.

The loss of the girls has left their families, classmates and communities reeling.

But it has also inspired an “outpouring of love,” said Catherine Carlson, Stephanie Carlson’s mother, as she offered her mittens and scarf to students shivering in the damp cold at Monday afternoon’s memorial service at the crash site.

“This was amazing,” Carlson said. “I hope they never stop loving. … You hear about how our country is divided, but then you see this. This is positive. This is beautiful, and I’m just so thankful.”

Despite heavy traffic, a memorial took shape shortly after the crash at Ramsey County Road 96 and Old Highway 10.

Knowing students would continue visiting to leave tributes to their classmates, the school worked with Ramsey County to shut down the traffic lane closest to the memorial, allowing students safer access Monday afternoon.

“We’ve been going to school with all these girls since sixth grade, so it’s hard not to know them,” said junior class representative Jocelyn Landwehr. “The first few days have been sad. It’s been scary. People are really reflecting in many, many ways.”

More than 200 students were shuttled from the school in buses while an additional 50 students parked at the nearby North Heights Lutheran Church and walked to the site. The memorial was not only attended by the victims’ Mounds View classmates, but also by students from nearby Irondale High School in New Brighton and St. Agnes High School in St. Paul — which Carlson attended her freshman and sophomore years.

Since the crash, three large crosses have been constructed at the site using lumber donated by Beisswenger’s Hardware in New Brighton and Scherer Bros. Lumber Co. in Arden Hills, Mounds View Public Schools spokesman Colin Sokolowski said.