It is
hard to believe how much time has passed since the last post. So many things
have changed. 11 months. It's been a long year.
Sadly,
the events of December 14th have overshadowed all. Sitting at my desk at work,
reading an email from a friend in Connecticut asking me if I'd "heard
about the school shooting in Newtown" was surreal. I thought what most of
us did, the school is on lockdown, no one was hurt, it was blown out of
proportion. Sadly, the opposite was true. With each subsequent report the news
became worse. And then it became horrifying. 20 children. First graders. 6
teachers and administrators. Gone. As was "The Shooter" as he has
come to be identified. And his mother. Rumors flew, but nothing changed those
numbers. And then the names. Was it anyone I knew? Was it anyone anyone I knew,
knew? I sat at my desk, sobbing as many of us did. Feeling helpless. Trying to
take it all in, while pushing it away.
It took
some time to explain to my California friends why this was so devastating. They
asked if I knew anyone. "I don't know yet", I told them. How do
you explain, what I heard one reporter convey, that Sandy Hook "is a small
community in a small town in a small state". EVERYONE will either know
someone directly, or know someone affected directly. And that even the few who
did not have a connection on December 13th, on the 14th will have a connection
forever. It took no time at all for me to decide what to do. With the
grief. The anger. The feeling of helplessness.
Our
little fund, "BHKMusic" as I now call it, will have to help some of
the survivors. The siblings. The children in the classroom who watched and
listened in terror to their worlds being torn to shreds. Their classmates.
Their teachers. Their brothers and sisters. This fund has lay dormant for too
long. We are going to kick it into high gear. Music therapy. Of course. 5, 6
& 7 years olds don't process everything cognitively. They process mostly in
feeling, experiencing, in movement. We can do this.
Within 2
weeks we have created a press release, a Facebook page, been highlighted on the
Fairfield County Community Foundation website right along side:
The Newtown Scholarship Fund
The Taunton Press Newtown Children
and Families Fund
(The Brenda H. Kaplan Music Fund)
The Grace McDonnell
Memorial Fund
Gifts in memory of Sandy Hook Elementary School psychologist
Mary Sherlach
Working with FCCF and The American Music Therapy Association we
are donating $2500, challenging corporations, groups and individuals to match
it so that we can set up a partnership with agencies in Newtown to provide this
very specialized type of therapy to as many of these kids we can. You can help.
Tell everyone you know. Post our BHKMusic
Blog, Facebook page and
the Donate
Now page from FCCF on anything and everything you can. The more
people know about us, the more chance we have of really making a
difference.
May you and your loved ones have a healthy, healing, peaceful
and otherwise amazing 2013. Keep Newtown in your hearts including first
responders, other teachers, counselors, and anyone who will live with this
tragedy for the days to come. We are Connecticut. We will survive. We will be
part of the healing.
Blessings.
