NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) – Seven months after a gunman killed 26 people inside Sandy Hook Elementary School, an organization formed to help Newtown’s children deal with the tragedy took 19 teenagers to Oklahoma, where they assisted in the cleanup from a series of devastating tornados.
The next summer, 20 more Newtown teens traveled to Colorado to help people there rebuild their homes after destructive floods. A third group is headed back to Colorado next month.
“For me it was about being able to finally do something,” said 17-year-old Brenna Kelly, who went on the Oklahoma trip. “The trip was the best way, for me at least, to finally feel like I was helping.”
The service trips are run by Ben’s Lighthouse, named after 6-year-old Ben Wheeler, one of the 20 children killed in the December 2012 shooting in Newtown. The organization also runs community-building, counseling and coping activities for younger children affected by the Sandy Hook massacre.
Chairman Rick Haylon said the trips are designed to give the teenagers perspective and to empower them at a time when many, like Kelly, feel powerless.