Twenty-six playgrounds built in honor of elementary school massacre
New Jersey’s largest firefighter union, the Firefighters’ Mutual Benevolent Association, is building 26 playgrounds through storm-ravaged areas to memorialize the lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The initiative, called The Sandy Ground Project: Where Angels Play, plans to dedicate a playground to each of the 20 children and six teachers killed in the shooting.
NJFMBA President William Lavin said in a statement that this project would respond both to the violence at Newtown and the damages caused by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
Lavin got his inspiration from a heartwarming letter of encouragement from a girl in Mississippi. The letter thanked firefighters for building them a playground after Hurricane Katrina. The communities of Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Miss. said they were “paying it forward” by sending Christmas gifts for those who lost their homes during Sandy.
“The understanding that this could have happened anywhere in America and to any one of our children was almost too terrifying to comprehend,” Lavin said.
With help from other organizations, such as the New York State Troopers and Save the Jersey Shore, Inc., the NJFMBA plans to build 10 playgrounds in New Jersey, 10 in New York and six in Connecticut, including one at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Sandy Ground Project will begin in Sea Bright, N.J. with a playground dedicated to Ann Marie Murphy, a special education teacher killed while trying to protect 6-year-old Dylan Hockley. The playgrounds in New York will be located in Staten Island, Midland Beach and Nassau County.
As of now, the FMBA has received enough funding to build at least five playgrounds, but it will continue to seek donations for the remaining 20. The total project is expected to cost approximately $2.1 million.
More than half the families of Newtown victims have spoken up about the benefits of this initiative.
“I see a community coming together in the midst of their own healing to simply forget their worries if only for a moment,” said Jennifer Hubbarb in a letter to the project. She lost her daughter, Catherine, in the massacre.
If the families agree, Lavin hopes to design each playground so that they reflect the personality of the victim they are honoring. For example, one of the playgrounds will be football-themed in honor of 6-year-old Jack Pinto, who was laid to rest wearing a New York Giants jersey.
Some fear this gesture of remembrance project does not do enough to ensure nothing like this will happen again.
CAS freshman Connor Hoffman, whose hometown Wilton is only 20 minutes away from where the shootings happened, expressed his concern.
“I’m not sure if we’re paying full respect to the victims of Newtown until we reassess gun legislation,” Hoffman said.
Donations to The Sandy Ground Project: Where Angels Play can be made at the FMBA’s website, www.njfmba.org.
Luiza Monetti is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].