The Long Island resident dedicated his training and the marathon “in memory of the 26 victims of the Sandy Hook school tragedy,” Mr Schneider wrote in an email to The Newtown Bee. “When I decided to undertake this memorial fundraising effort, I was just struggling to figure out a way to help,” he added.
Mr Schneider has a lot of family and friends in the Northeast, including a cousin, Reinhard Hillefeld, who lives in Newtown.
“The tragedy our community is going through really hit him hard, being a father to three little boys,” Mr Hillefeld said in early March.
Thanks to donations from family, friends, co-workers and even strangers who heard of Mr Schneider’s decision, he was able to raise over $4,100 for The Sandy Hook School Support Fund.
In addition to fundraising for the fund, Mr Schneider wore a pair of sneakers during the Louisiana run that he had marked with the initials of each of the Sandy Hook School victims while running the marathon. In addition, he wore a green T-shirt with white lettering that read 26 Miles for the Sandy Hook School 26.
“I added the initials to the sneakers after I completed a training run in memory of each victim,” he wrote. “The stories I read about each victim carried me throughout my training and the marathon. As I approached the finish line, I stopped and took off my sneakers, raised them up, and bowed my head to honor the memory of the victims and recognize their inspiration in my Hands free access.”
Madeline Gagne raised a few hundred dollars a few months ago. Above the fundraising effort, though, the work the 19-year old Sandy Hook resident and University of Tampa sophomore feel better about returning to school after her holiday break.
“I had a hard time going back to Florida for school this semester,” she said. “I felt like I was betraying Newtown by leaving it after such a tragic event.
“I still feel guilty being in warm and sunny Florida while my family drives past Sandy Hook Center every day and is reminded of what happened,” she said via email.
Like many residents and friends of Newtown, Madeline began to immediately incorporate something into each day’s outfit that would remind her of 12/14 — a We Are Newtown T-shirt, a Pura Vida bracelet, “or even green and white nail polish,” she said — but it didn’t feel like enough. Before she returned to school earlier this year, Madeline reached out to Jason Sumerau, her sociology professor, looking for some advice.
They decided that instead of creating a separate event to serve as a fundraiser, Madeline would piggyback onto something that had already been planned. They decided to keep things simple, setting up a table during the school’s spring dance concert on February 23, where Madeline had hoped to sell snacks and water, as well as stickers and bracelets, during two performances that day.
Madeline’s stepfather is Adam Zuckerman, who in February designed stickers that feature a red heart surrounding a depiction of the Sandy Hook School sign. With white lettering above and below the school sign, the message of the stickers read “Sandy Hook School In Our Heart.”
She learned that the school’s theater department already handles water and snack sales, but “they were more than willing to have the proceeds from the Saturday shows go to Sandy Hook,” she reported. Madeline — a dance student, who was also in one of the numbers during the annual show — had decided that she would donate any money she raised to Sandy Hook Promise.
“I knew the father of [one of the children] also graduated from New Milford High School,” said Mrs Regan, a member of the NMHS Class of 1993. “It became clear that we needed to show our support for this family, and show my own children that we can still support these families living quite some distance away.”
Within hours of learning the names of the victims, Mrs Regan announced on her Facebook page that she would be designing, ordering, and selling green and white silicone bracelets, in exchange for $5 donations. The bracelets are green, with white lettering that say Sandy Hook Newtown CT on one side, and Forever Angels 12/14/12 on the other.
Before she was even able to figure out where the donations would be sent, the first order of bracelets arrived, and she had orders for more than that first batch of 800 bracelets.
Meanwhile, Mrs Regan approached her employer, Patriot National Insurance Group, to see if the company would be willing to help in selling the bracelets.
“Turns out the HR director, who I knew was from Connecticut, knows the mom of [the child whose father attended New Milford High School that Mrs Regan knew of],” she said. “Small world. So we worked together ordering another 800 bracelets.”
By March 11, Mrs Regan had raised more than $7,500, and she had decided to divide those funds between four funds: $3,000 is being donated to Newtown Park & Bark, in memory of Olivia Engel; $2,000 is going to Newtown Kindness/The Act of Kindness Awards, in memory of Charlotte Bacon; $1,350 will go to Newtown Social Services, earmarked for the police officers who responded to Sandy Hook School on 12/14; and another $1,350 has been donated to the Town of Newtown, for teachers and survivors.
A group of women in the Capitol Region of New York, Niskayuna Moms on the Run listened when Newtown’s town leaders began to plead with the nation to stop sending so many items into town. Knowing that the town was still being overwhelmed with visitors, the women, an informal running group, decided to host their own memorial run and walk on January 19, with proceeds to benefit one Newtown fund and two Niskayuna funds.
The event was called Strides for Sandy Hook Memorial. Participants were invited to choose from a 5K run and 1-mile walk, each leaving from Niskayuna Town Hall.
“We were originally going to go to Newtown to do Strides For Sandy Hook [a 5K run-gathering and balloon release at Fairfield Hills held on January 19], but when people were encouraged to do their own runs and events, we decided to do this,” Tina Lee, who organized the New York event with Kelly Anderson, told The Newtown Bee. “We have a large email list that we could send information out to, but we realized there were a number of people in our community who might also want to be involved.”
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