MINNEAPOLIS — Hundreds of people gathered this afternoon in Minneapolis for the memorial of Harper Moyski, the 10-year-old girl killed in the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church.

Green and blue ribbons fluttered from the arms of benches at the Lake Harriet Bandshell, a quiet show of remembrance. Many of those gathered wore the same Annunciation T-shirts worn last week at the funeral of Fletcher Merkel, also killed in the attack.

The memorial was open to “all who loved” Harper and who hoped to bring “the kind of joy Harper brought into the world.”

A volunteer wove through the rows of benches before the memorial, handing out small stuffed animals to children as soft pop music played over the speakers. At the front of the bandshell, easels stood in a row, each covered with poster board collages of photos from Harper’s life — school days, friendships and wide, joyful smiles.

Father Tom Hurley of Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago led the service, offering prayers for Harper’s family, the Annunciation community and the city of Minneapolis.

“Lord, our God, from whom human sadness is never hidden. You know the depths of our grief that we feel at the loss of Harper as we mourn her passing from this life. Comfort us with the knowledge that Harper lives now in your loving embrace,” he said.

As his words hung in the air, a hushed “amen” rippled softly through the crowd.

A rabbi and close friend of the Moyski family read a poem urging the community to stand together in love and rise above hate. Then he led the audience in song, his voice steady as others joined in until the whole bandshell was singing: “We are Harper and Fletcher’s people. We are singing, singing for our lives.”

Harper’s parents Jackie Flavin and Mike Moyski took the stage to thank the community for surrounding their family in support of their daughter.

“You’ve lifted us up during the hardest days of our lives,” Mike Moyski said. “And we are so grateful.”

He then passed the microphone to Harper’s mother.

“These last few weeks have felt like being dropped at the bottom of the ocean, where it is pitch dark and the pressure is crushing and no human is really meant to survive it,” Jackie Flavin said. “The light that we’re used to just doesn’t reach all the way down here at the bottom of the ocean. But I have to say that even in the deepest, darkest places, life somehow finds a way and light breaks through. How to be a light — that’s what Harper taught us every single day of her 10 brilliant years. Harper was filled with the brightest light.

“She was only 10, and yet she taught us more than most people ever could,” Flavin said. “So today, we want to share three lessons from Harper — three ways she has taught us, and continues to teach us, how to be a light.

”Lesson one: Be your own kind of light.

“Lesson two: Let your light be big.

“Lesson three: Light grows when we share it.”

Flavin recalled a story that, even in preschool, showed Harper’s spark.

“Her very first teacher asked her what her name was,” Flavin said. “Without even looking up from her coloring, she goes, ‘Bad ass.’”

The crowd erupted in laughter.

“That was Harper. Confident, kind and completely her own kind of light,” Flavin said.

When Flavin and Moyski stepped off the stage, the crowd rose to its feet in applause. An operatic cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” rang out from the stage.

After the speeches, poems, songs and prayers, the Moyski and Flavin families invited everyone to stay and “celebrate the way Harper would want” — by having fun. Children darted around the back of the bandshell while families mingled, “Send Me on My Way” played from speakers on the stage; it was the last song Moyski and Flavin had danced to at their wedding.

Harper was “pure magic,” said an obituary signed by Harper’s parents and sister Quinn Moyski. They said she had a “sense of self far beyond her years.”

The family had a goal of visiting all 63 U.S. National Parks before Harper graduated high school, the obituary said, since exploring the world with family brought her joy. She often led the trips, “wide-eyed, curious and always up for the next trail.”

A visitation and funeral for Fletcher Merkel, 8, who was also killed was held on Sept. 7. More than 1,400 people attended, including many wearing Annunciation t-shirts saying “a future filled with hope,” which was the school year’s theme.

The first week of classes at Annunciation was interrupted when a shooter fired a spray of bullets into the church, killing Harper and Fletcher and injuring 21 others.

In earlier statements, the family mentioned Harper’s love for her younger sister. Harper and her sister were known in their south Minneapolis neighborhood for their magical front-yard fairy garden, which delighted passersby with its painted-rock rainbows and treasures.

“She was incredible, so full of light,” said Jennifer Eue, a neighbor, of Harper. “She and her little sister were best friends.”

Eue said, Harper and her sister delivered homemade Christmas ornaments and May Day baskets to neighbors. Eue frequently saw the girls jumping on their trampoline and running through the sprinkler together, with big sister doting on the little one.

The obituary said Harper made her family laugh every day. She wanted to become a veterinarian “and had the heart and smarts to do it.”

Harper “could hold her own in any conversation, especially about fairness or injustice, and had a sharp radar for social issues,” according to her family. She “asked every question and expected real answers.”

A friend and neighbor of the Flavin/Moyski family has established a GoFundMe on behalf of the family. Money raised will be used “in honor of Harper’s memory.”

Harper’s family said they will honor Harper by “chasing sunsets, asking bold questions, and loving with everything we’ve got.”

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—Sharyn Jackson contributed to this story.

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