Why I'm Walking 44 Miles in December to Keep Kids Safe in School
The families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre took their enormous grief and turned it into a movement to prevent violence from striking other schools, including in my hometown
I’m taking part in the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation’s 44-Mile Remembrance Challenge in December to support its school safety programs, a cause that I have been passionate about since that terrible day in 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, when 20 first graders were massacred in their classroom.
Sandy Hook Promise, founded by families who lost their loved ones that day, works with school districts across the country, including in my hometown of Martinez, on a range of programs to prevent violence and harm on school campuses and promote a climate of safety, kindness and inclusion. In 2018, Martinez Unified became the first school district in Contra Costa County to sign on with Sandy Hook Promise for its programs that are offered free of charge, and the district superintendent told me recently that it has made a significant impact on the district’s school-safety efforts. The school board recently approved a new Memorandum of Understanding with Sandy Hook Promise to use the foundation’s National Crisis Center during a nine-month pilot period to scan the district’s student email system and alert the district to potentially harmful language.
Over the years, I have spoken multiple times at school board meetings in support of Sandy Hook Promise and its potential to not only prevent mass shootings but also other threats to student well-being and safety, including bullying and emotional distress. I also had the honor in 2018 of listening to Sandy Hook Promise co-founder Nicole Hockley, who lost her son Dylan to the massacre, speak in Pleasant Hill about what motivated her to start this wonderful foundation and its programs. She and other parents were understandably distressed by the failure of Congress to pass meaningful gun safety legislation in the wake of Sandy Hook, and so many other tragedies before and after, but weren’t willing to give up in protecting others from the awful fate that took the lives of their loved ones.
Instead of becoming bitter and disillusioned, she and the other Sandy Hook families decided to take matters into their own hands and pursue common-sense actions to enhance safety in schools across America by giving faculty, staff and students the tools — free of charge — to identify potential threats of violence, and also to create conditions on school campuses that will make such threats less likely to occur. That’s accomplished through programs such as “Know the Signs” and “Start with Hello,” which combats social isolation by encouraging students to reach out to someone who is alone and help make them feel included (as someone who spent lots of lonely days at school growing up, this really hits home with me).
One thing that struck me in hearing Nicole’s story, and those of others who have been stricken with unimaginable tragedy, is that as much as we see these people as needing our support and comfort, what they really crave most is the opportunity to turn their grief into something positive, to help prevent others from experiencing the same loss that has gripped their lives. This sense of purpose brings renewed meaning to their lives, and the knowledge that their loved one did not die in vain, that through their death came a movement that saves the lives of countless others.
That’s the story of Sandy Hook Promise. As its website says, “From Tragedy to Transformation.” In the years since its founding, Sandy Hook Promise has enlisted 21 million participants nationwide and estimates that it has prevented at least 218 acts of violence with a weapon, averted at least 15 school shootings, and has saved at least 554 lives with crisis interventions — all through the donations of people like you and me.
As part of the fundraiser, I am planning to walk 44 miles throughout the month of December in remembrance of the 44 children lost to gun violence each day in the United States. I logged 7.4 miles during the first two days of the challenge, including a Mt. Wanda hike with my dog Theo on Saturday (see picture below).
If anyone is interested in joining me on a walk, I would love the company (email me at craig.lazzeretti@gmail.com). If you’re interested in contributing to the fundraiser, you can do so through this Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/donate/1221588962138180/ or make a contribution directly on the Sandy Hook Promise website at https://www.sandyhookpromise.org
Nicole Hockley speaking at a Contra Costa county Office of Education event in 2018.
As a bonus, I am today opening this newsletter to voluntary paid subscriptions and will match any subscriptions received now through the end of December to Sandy Hook Promise. In future months, I plan fundraisers on other causes dear to my heart that I will write about and promote through this newsletter.
Thank you for the consideration and hope to see some of you on the trails of Martinez during my 44 miles of walking in December.
This is wonderful, Craig...good for you! I would love to walk with you because it’s my passion but I have developed plantar fasciitis and am trying to figure out how to get rid of it. I will contribute some $ instead. Hope you and Theo find walking partners.