Sunday, December 23, 2012
NEWTOWN, Conn. — Newtown’s children were showered with gifts Saturday - tens of thousands of teddy bears, Barbie dolls, soccer balls and board games- but they were only a part of the tokens of support from around the world for the city in mourning.
Just a little over a week ago, 20 children and six school employees were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, attacked the school, then killed himself. Police don’t know what set off the massacre.
Days before Christmas,funerals were still being held Saturday, the final ones whose schedules were made public, the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association said. Services were held in Utah for Emilie Parker, 6, and in Connecticut for Ana Marquez-Greene, 6, and Josephine Gay, 7.
All of Newtown’s children were invited to Edmond Town Hall, where they could choose a toy. Bobbi Veach, who was fielding donations at the building, reflected on the outpouring of gifts from toy stores, organizations and individuals around the world.
“It’s their way if grieving,” Veach said. “They say, ‘I feel so bad, I just want to do something to reach out.’ That’s why we accommodate everybody we can.”
The United Way of Western Connecticut said the official fund for donations had $2.8 million in it Saturday morning. Others sent envelopes stuffed with cash to pay for coffee at the general store, and a shipment of cupcakes arrived from a gourmet bakery in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The Postal Service reported a sixfold increase in mail in town and set up a unique post office box to handle it. The parcels come decorated with rainbows and hearts drawn by schoolchildren.
Some letters arrived in packs of 26 identical envelopes - one for each family of the children and staff members killed - or addressed to the “First Responders” or just “The People of Newtown.” One card arrived from Georgia addressed to “The families of 6 amazing women and 20 beloved angels.” Many contained checks.
“This is just the proof of the love that’s in this country,” said Postmaster Cathy Zieff.
Peter Leone said he was busy making delicatessen sandwiches and working the register at his Newtown General Store when he got a phone call from Alaska. It was a woman who wanted to give him her credit-card number.
“She said, ‘I’m paying for the next $500 of food that goes out your door,’” Leone said. “About a half-hour later another gentleman called, I think from the West Coast, and he did the same thing for $2,000.”
At the town hall, the basement resembled a toy store, with piles of stuffed penguins, dolls, games and other fun gifts. All the toys were inspected and examined by bomb-sniffing dogs before being sorted and put on card tables. The children could choose whatever they wanted.
“But we’re not checking IDs at the door,” said Tom Mahoney, the building administrator, who’s in charge of handling gifts. “If there is a child from another town who comes in need of a toy, we’re not going to turn them away.”
Many people have placed flowers, candles and stuffed animals at makeshift memorials that have popped up all over town. Others are stopping by the Edmond Town Hall to drop off food, or toys or cash. About 60,000 teddy bears were donated, said Ann Benoure, a social-services caseworker who was working at the town hall.
“There’s so much stuff coming in,” Mahoney said. “To be honest, it’s a bit overwhelming; you just want to close the doors and turn the phone off.”
Mahoney said the town of about 27,000 with a median household income of more than $111,000 plans to donate whatever is left over to shelters or other charities.
Sean Gillespie of Colchester, who attended Sandy Hook Elementary, and Lauren Minor, who works at U.S. Foodservice in Norwich, came from Calvary Chapel in Uncasville with a car filled with food donated by U.S. Foodservice. But they were sent elsewhere because the refrigerators in Newtown were overflowing with donations.
“We’ll find someplace,” Gillespie said. “It won’t go to waste.”
In addition to the town’s official fund, other private funds have been set up. Former Sandy Hook pupil Ryan Kraft, who once baby-sat Lanza, set up a fund with other alumni that has collected almost $150,000. It is earmarked for the Sandy Hook PTA.
Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel is raising money for a memorial to the victims. He said one man wrote a check for $52,000 for that project.
Several colleges, including the University of Connecticut, have set up scholarship funds to pay for the education of pupils at Sandy Hook and the relatives of the victims.
Town officials have not decided yet what to do with all the money. A board of Newtown community leaders is being established to determine how it is most needed and will be best utilized, said Isabel Almeida with the local United Way, which has waived all its administrative fees related to the fund.
She said some have wondered about building a new school for Sandy Hook students if the town decides to tear the school down, but that decision has not been made.
And while the town is grateful for all the support, Almeida said, it has no more room for those gifts. Instead, she encouraged people to donate to others in memory of the Sandy Hook victims.
“Send those teddy bears to a school in your community or an organization that serves low-income children, who are in need this holiday season, and do it in memory of our children,” she said.
The burial Saturday for 7-year-old Josephine brought to an end a bleak procession of announced funerals that began not long after the massacre.
“This has been a challenge for us,” Msgr. Robert Weiss said during his homily at Josephine’s funeral Mass at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church.
The shootings have resonated around the world and have set off an intense national discussion on gun control, mental health and other issues.
That discussion continues, yet the focus here Saturday was not on questions of policy or new laws. It was on first-grader Josephine, known to family and friends as Joey, who had turned 7 days before she was killed.
Her father, Bob Gay, noted that though she had autism and was unable to speak, “you don’t need words to say, ‘I love you.’”
Gay and Josephine’s mother, Michele Gay, shared with the congregation some of the “life lessons” they learned from their daughter.
“You can’t really appreciate a movie until you have watched it 300 times,” Michele Gay said, before mentioning another lesson: “IPhones are not waterproof.”
Her father said that Josephine had taught him not to “sweat the small stuff; it’s all small stuff.” And this: “Even the smallest of us can do great things.”
In a town that was plunged into unimaginable shock and sorrow a little more than a week before, there seemed to be a determination at the funeral to be upbeat. Many people wore purple, Josephine’s favorite color.
Information for this article was contributed by Pat Eaton-Robb, Jesse Washington, Allen Breed, Chris Sullivan, Eileen Connelly, Susan Haigh and John Christoffersen of The Associated Press; and by Marc Santora of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/23/2012