A bus drives past a sign reading Welcome to Sandy Hook, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, in Newtown, Conn.White House marking Newtown shooting anniversaryWASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden is pledging more funding for mental health as the White House prepares to remember the first anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.The White House says President Barack Obama and the first lady will observe a moment of silence at the White House on Saturday’s anniversary in memory of the victims.With Obama in South Africa on Tuesday, Biden met with victims’ relatives to announce that $100 million will become available for mental health services.About $50 million will be offered to help community health centers hire providers and add services for mental illness and addiction. The government aims to provide another $50 million in financing for rural mental health facilities.The Obama administration has made mental health a focus since control legislation stalled in Congress.- Associated Press
This April 2012 file photo provided by the family shows Avielle Richman, center, with her parents Jennifer Hensel and Jeremy Richman in Boston. Avielle was among the 20 children killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.NEWTOWN, Conn. – A year later, inside the big house on Berkshire Road, dolls fill the shelves of a living room and flowers and rainbows decorate a kitchen window, next to a little girl’s name: Avielle.
Outside, all around town, Christmas lights shimmer again. But so, too, do the 26 bronze stars that sit atop the local firehouse, one for each adult and child gunned down at a school one unimaginable day.
In so many ways, this is a place frozen in time. Ribbons of green – the Sandy Hook Elementary School color – stay tied to mailboxes and storefronts, just as a curly-haired girl smiles from a framed photograph that remains atop a mantel inside Jeremy Richman’s century-old home.
People might assume the hurt that accompanies tragedy fades with time. But, says Richman, who last Dec. 14 lost his only child, “I miss Avielle more every day.”