NEWTOWN — Families of the 26 children and adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have banded together to create a website on which they’ll post personal remembrances, such as photos, and links to various charities created in memory of their loved ones.
For the past few months, some family members said, the families have been discussing the best way to present a united front. Several of the families will gather at 1 p.m. to announce the website, mysandyhookfamily.org, and read a statement as the one-year anniversary of the Dec. 14 shooting approaches.
“This website is intended to serve as a singular place of sharing, communication, and contact with the families of those who lost their lives that day,” the site states. “MySandyHookFamily.org allows us, the 26 families, the opportunity to honor our loved ones in a way that feels right to each individual family.”
The website brings up a biography and details on charities related to the victim when the user clicks on the victim’s name.
“In the midst of our grief we have come to realize that we want our loved ones to be remembered for the lives they lived and how they touched our hearts,” the families said in a prepared release. “This website is intended to serve as a singular place of sharing, communication, and contact with the families of those who lost their lives that day.”
There is also a link to the My Sandy Hook Family Fund, run by Sandy Hook resident Rob Accomondo. Accomondo started the fund the day after the massacre and has raised more than $1.6 million, all of which has gone directly to the families.
Many of the families are still bitter at the distribution of money from the largest fund the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation Inc.. The families received $7.7 million out of what was then an $11.3 million fund.
Many families were upset that all of the money wasn’t given to the victim’s families and that the foundation has no clear plan on what to do with the rest of the money.
The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation now has more than $12 million with about $750,000 has been raised since the families distribution was made.
Visit the website at http://mysandyhookfamily.org/
Dave Altimari, Hartford Courant