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U.S. NEWS Friday 15 december 2017

American Living:

Activism, charity sustain Sandy Hook families 5 years later

erate choice to be guided by ning, nutrition, strength and several Newtown families,
our children and their spirits. flexibility. At the end of six including the parents of first-
We wanted to be positive. We weeks, campers come togeth- grade victims Dylan Hockley
wanted to avoid the political er for a sanctioned triathlon. and Daniel Barden. The group
and some of the hot button The program has grown to 20 lobbied for mental health
issues and be focused on locations in three states. care changes and gun con-
the practical things that ev- “We originally wanted a brick- trol legislation in the months
erybody can do to make the and-mortar place where fam- after the shooting, success-
community safer.” ilies could come and work out fully advocating for state
and be together,” Kowalski laws limiting sales of some
RUNNING FOR HEALING said. “We knew we were go- guns in states such as Con-
Kowalski said her healing has ing somewhere, but we didn’t necticut, Delaware, Illinois
come by organizing a chil- know where. Chase provided and New Jersey. The group
dren’s triathlon program, us with the direction. Now, we also was heavily involved in
Race4Chase , in memory of have 20 places, and people a failed effort in 2013 to get
their son, who loved to race have really embraced what a federal law banning some
In this Aug. 5, 2017 photo, Rebecca Kowalski and child athletes
wait for the rain to stop so they can begin the annual Race4Chase and had competed in a simi- the program is all about.” semi-automatic weapons and
kids state triathlon on at the YMCA’s Camp Sloper in Southington, lar event the summer before expanding criminal and men-
Conn. The Kowalski family began the Race4Chase program to the shooting. SANDY HOOK PROMISE tal background checks for gun
honor her son, Chase Kowalski, who was among 20 first-graders The free day camps, run in Sandy Hook Promise, one of purchases. The group says it
killed on Dec. 14, 2012 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in conjunction with the YMCA, the best-known organizations had 17 families from Sandy
Newtown.
(AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb) teach children the fundamen- to form in the shooting’s af- Hook who lobbied 49 sena-
tals of swimming, biking, run- termath, was co-founded by tors over seven days.q
By PAT EATON-ROBB projects they have started in
Associated Press memory of their family mem-
NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — bers.
Out of a senseless tragedy, A look at some of them:
they have sought ways to find
meaning in advocacy. SEEKING SAFER SCHOOLS
Many relatives of the 26 chil- Alissa Parker had Michele
dren and educators killed five Gay’s phone number on her
years ago at Sandy Hook El- refrigerator because Parker’s
ementary School have dedi- daughter, Emilie, had been
cated themselves to charity, invited to a birthday party for
activism and other efforts to Gay’s daughter, Josephine.
channel their grief and, in The day before the party was
many cases, to help prevent to be held, both children
violence. were killed.
“You have two choices,” said Parker, who had lived in
Rebecca Kowalski, whose Newtown less than a year
7-year-old son, Chase, died in and didn’t know many other
Newtown. “I could be in the parents, called Gay. The two
bottom of a bottle; I could not bonded over their shared loss
get out of my bed. Or, I could and eventually teamed to
do what’s making us heal a form Safe and Sound Schools,
little bit every day.” a foundation that provides
Some organizations, like the information and resources
Kowalski’s youth triathlon about school safety.
program, honor the passions They travel, usually sepa-
of the children who were lost rately, to schools around the
on Dec. 14, 2012. country, giving talks that de-
Others have jumped into the tail their personal experienc-
policy fray to lobby for gun es on the day of the shoot-
control or improved mental ing and discussing in detail
health care. In some cases, how their children died. They
they have traveled the coun- then talk about what can be
try, and even the world, as done to make schools safer,
recognized experts in their everything from making sure
fields, such as Jeremy Rich- that classrooms can be locked
man, a scientist whose Avielle from the inside to involv-
Foundation for the study of ing first responders in school
brain health is named for his emergency drills.
slain daughter. “I feel very solid that this is
The Sandy Hook families have what Josephine wants me
created a website to share to be doing, and Alissa feels
each of their stories and in- the same way about Emilie,”
formation about the various Gay said. “We made a delib-