When student athletes, firefighters and Girl Scouts converge Friday on Central Connecticut State University, they’ll sombrely honour the anniversary of the
Sandy Hook mass murder —and do something more.
They and dozens of other volunteers will be accepting donations of winter clothes, food, toys and other supplies for the needy in what CCSU and the Ana Grace Project are calling the Love Wins Community Drive.
“We really want this to be about giving back to the community. We’re trying to make this day as positive as possible,” said Ryan Langer, who helped organize the campaign in the city’s schools.
“The idea is to make this into a day of giving back, a day to share,” said Courtney McDavid, a CCSU staffer and co-organizer of the event.
They both credit the idea to Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of one of the 26 victims of the 2012 mass
shooting. Marquez-Greene went on to found the Ana Grace Project a year later in honour of her late 6-year-old daughter, and has worked ever since to promote compassion and kindness in communities and schools.
“Nelba sees the entire mission of the Ana Grace Project as rooted around doing good in light of all the bad in the world,” McDavid said. “This year she really wanted to do something that would give back to the community.”
Volunteers put together large purple donation boxes last month and have put them around the city. They’re looking to bring all of the donations to Davidson Hall at CCSU on Friday morning; nearly 200 volunteers are signed up to sort and transport donations, as well as accept more from anyone who stops by between 6 a.m. and noon.
“It’s a wonderful thing. We’re grateful that Nelba has once again opened her heart to give to those in need,” Mayor Erin Stewart said. “Nelba is not just inspiring to me as a mayor, but as a friend.
“She called a month ago and said ‘I have this little thing going on and I need your help.’ Whenever it’s Nelba, it’s never little —and this was definitely ‘go large or go home,’ “ Stewart said. “We agreed to put the purple boxes at every firehouse, at police headquarters and at city hall. Now I’ve got two full boxes in my office alone. We should have very nice amount to donate.”
Chief Raul Ortiz said a fire truck decorated with Christmas lights will be at CCSU on Friday as part of the event, and firefighters will be ferrying donations to the campus.
“It takes a unique person to turn a tragedy of this magnitude into something positive,” Ortiz said. “I’ve rarely seen that. Usually people cope with grief in their own way. But Nelba has taken it on to make a change and not let her daughter have died in vain.”
Several schools have volunteers pitching in, and Chamberlain School’s chorus will perform the song “Love Wins.”
“Superintendent (Nancy) Sarra wanted to continue with the idea that there’s always a way you can give, so students at other schools are making appreciation cards for the police department, some of the younger children are making ‘thinking of you’ cards for the residents at Jerome Home,” Langer said. “The focus is around love, kindness and empathy.”
The university’s clock tower bell will toll 26 times at 9:35 a.m.
Volunteers will be accepting donations of toys, non-perishable food, clothing and winter gloves, boots and hats for poor families in Greater New Britain. New Britain Family & Youth Services, the Maria’s Place food pantry on campus and the public school system will receive most of the donations to provide to needy children.