Paige Ingram

No event brought to light the difference between the city of Littleton and a Littleton mailing address more than the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in unincorporated Jefferson County.

Within hours of the story breaking, news media from all over the world were traveling to the region, many “reporting from Littleton, Colorado.”

Kelli Narde, communications director for the city, fielded many calls that day from reporters requesting to speak to then-Mayor Pat Cronenberger. Confusion reached as far as the White House, which managed to find the mayor’s home number in an effort to extend condolences.

While Narde repeatedly explained that Columbine High School was not within city limits, journalists were not deterred.

Narde said she was told the Associated Press has a policy to identify locales as cities, not counties. So saying the incident had occurred in Jefferson County, Colorado, simply wouldn’t do.

That’s not to say the technicality of geographic boundaries kept the City of Littleton from being affected by the worst shooting at a U.S. high school. Indeed, Littleton firefighters, police, council members and ordinary citizens were all on-hand to help with the aftermath and were deeply moved by the events.

“There were people who worked at the City of Littleton who had kids that went to the school,” said Chris Gibbons, business and industry affairs director with the city.

City officials decided they needed to respond. Over the next few years, the city worked with the school district to develop the Greater Littleton Youth Initiative, a series of programs designed to promote healthy youth development.

“We talked a lot about what to call it,” said Diana Holland, a former president of the Littleton school board, who was active in creating the initiative. “We called it ‘Greater Littleton’ so it could spill over. If somebody comes to us and they want to participate with us we don’t shut them out because of the boundaries.”

To this day, the relationship between Columbine and Littleton exists, a fact that is clear when scanning Internet search results of “Littleton, Colo.” Gibbons said he has an alert set up to receive an e-mail any time Littleton is referenced online, in any context.

“To this day, almost 10 years later, I’ll see at least one (alert) a week (mentioning Columbine,)” he said. “And if there’s a shooting, it’s 40 or 50 in a week.”