Sandy Hook families turn pain into activism

Five years after the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., relatives of the 26 children and educators killed have created a website to share their stories. Visitors to the My Sandy Hook Family site can click the names of the victims and learn more about the memorial projects started in their honor. Some of the efforts promote the passions of children who died, like a youth triathlon program in memory of 7-year-old Chase Kowalski. Others lobby for gun control or improved mental health care. “You have two choices,” said Rebecca Kowalski, Chase’s mother. “I could be in the bottom of a bottle; I could not get out of my bed. Or, I could do what’s making us heal a little bit every day.” Chase and 19 other first-graders died along with six adult staff members when 20-year-old Adam Lanza entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle on Dec. 14, 2012. Lanza shot and killed his mother at home before going to the school, where he committed suicide at the end of the massacre. Churches throughout Newtown are holding prayer services today, though some victims’ families have left town to avoid the memorial observances, the Hartford Courant reported.