"It hurts every time the anniversary comes around. Especially for those who knew her," said New Hampshire, Executive Board member Daniel St. Hilaire, 43. "My son is 18 and a freshman in college, and I've never sat down with him to discuss it."
A longtime resident of Concord, St. Hilaire went to Concord High School, where McAuliffe taught Social Studies and was an adviser to the club's Youth in Government, he was a member. He remembered as a passionate teacher who emphasized the real world, practical experience both in school and out. "She was a different kind of teacher - not just reading in the classroom," he said. "She felt very strongly that children learn best by experience and lived his life that way."
A whole generation has grown from McAuliffe and six other astronauts died on January 28, 1986, yet his legacy lives on in this small town about an hour north of Boston. She was loved passionately by students and residents, and his death affects those who remember. Some people still break the mere mention of the name of McAuliffe.
"It's hard to have everything brought back to the forefront of my mind again," said Carol Berry, 71, a friend of McAuliffe, who was watching in person at Cape Canaveral when the Challenger exploded. "Every year, I think about it again. I feel so bad."
In the years since the explosion, Concord has taken steps to ensure McAuliffe never be forgotten. The local planetarium is named in his honor and memories associated with the mission houses the Challenger. Students and visitors are given tours and taught about their impact on the space program. Recently, the city called the school early primary will be completed after it, giving it an honor reserved for presidents and ensure students for the next few years will know his name.
Keeping alive the memory of McAuliffe is also important to Holly Merrow, who graduated from Concord High in 1986 and now teaches at Portland, Maine. Merrow, McAuliffe taught by a class about women in history, she recalled lessons fun, interesting and real - and she tries to do the same.
Merrow teaches third grade, but for several years taught a lesson about McAuliffe and the Challenger to students in fifth grade and middle school. She showed them an album full of stickers from NASA as well as articles about the explosion and the selection of McAuliffe by NASA, which was chosen from more than 11,000 applicants in a competition to be the first teacher of civilians on a flight space.
"I teach teachers who were not even alive then," he said. She says it has been difficult to go back in time to give lessons, saying: "I am the best and even at times."
Over the years, the city has observed the anniversary in his quiet way, without fanfare or media attention, and the anniversary of this year is no different. The only event planned to celebrate the occasion is in the planetarium, where a representative from NASA will speak and a short documentary will be shown to teachers and members of the public.
In a rare public comment, her husband, Steven McAuliffe, recently wrote a letter to the Board of heart about the school that bears his name. "There Christa honor that I cherish more than having his name associated with a school in the hometown he loved," he wrote. "I hope that generations of students, teachers and administrators who pass through the new school will be inspired by the most precious lesson -. Ordinary people can make extraordinary contributions when they remain true to themselves and follow their dreams"
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