Avielle Richman’s playground at Belmar Elementary School in Belmar, N.J. (Photo courtesy of Sandy Ground Project)
Avielle Richman was a Denver Broncos fan.
Not an avid one, but the 6-year-old enjoyed casually watching football on Sunday’s with her parents. She actually rooted for two teams. When her family moved from San Diego, Calif., to Newtown, Conn., Richman decided she also wanted to cheer for an East Coast team so she picked the New York Jets.
Richman, an adventurous girl and loving daughter, was murdered on Dec. 14, 2012 when Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., killing 26 people, 20 of them children.
Following the tragedy, along with Hurricane Sandy that devastated the Eastern shoreline, New Jersey firefighter Bill Lavin had an idea.
He wanted to build 26 playgrounds along the coast of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and name each one in honor of the children and teachers killed in Newtown. He contacted each one of the families and explained his objective. Each embraced the idea.
So did the NFL.
Every year, the NFL Foundation, “a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and safety of sports, youth football and the communities in which we live,” invests $1 million in the Super Bowl’s host city. Together, they raise more money — a total of $11 million this year — for dozens of projects across the region that will leave an impact on the communities. Last year in New Orleans, for example, many of the projects were Hurricane Katrina-related.
This year part of their funds are going toward three playgrounds in the New York area.
“We were receiving hundreds of thousands of letters, all of the families were,” said Richman’s mother, Jennifer Henson. “But when I opened up Mr. Lavin’s it was one of the very first letters that brought me out of an intense haze of grief, and it spoke to my heart and I thought this was a really hopeful and beautiful gesture to have these playgrounds in honor of our children and at the same time, benefiting so many other children and help keep a community intact.”
The Sandy Ground Project Where Angels Play has built 16 of the 26 playgrounds thus far and Lavin says they’re probably going to add a 27th in Newtown to honor all of the families. They’ve raised half of the $3 million to complete the project.
The largest contribution to date came from the NFL. A $300,000 gift helped build three playgrounds, one of them Richman’s in Belmar, N.J.
The other two playgrounds in the New York area funded by the NFL were dedicated to 7-year-old Josephine Gay and Sandy Hook teacher Mary Sherlach. Gay was a huge Baltimore Ravens fan, so her playground in Bridgeport, Conn. is purple. Sherlach, a Miami Dolphins fan, had a special group of Jets fans wearing Dolphins T-shirts building hers in Breezy Point in Queens, N.Y.
Mary Sherlach’s playground in Breezy Point in Queens, N.Y. (Photo courtesy of Sandy Ground Project)
“We say Mary continues to change the world,” Lavin said. “So much so that 26 Jets fans can become Dolphins fans for a day.”
Lavin’s project began after Sept. 11, 2001. In wake of the terrorist attacks, his fire department received heartfelt cards and letters from a third grade class at North Bay Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, Miss. and hung them around the firehouse.
Then when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the firefighters wondered how those third graders were doing.
“It turned out the school was completely destroyed and 80% of the kids lost their homes,” Lavin said.
Lavin and his men went to Mississippi to see what they could do and were told the kids’ playground was destroyed. So they raised half a million dollars, went back down South, and built three playgrounds.
It got bigger from there.
“It’s just been a blessed project from the very beginning,” he said. “We’ve had rainbows show up during the build, had skies turn pink, so many things have happened that we don’t believe were coincidental.”
Feedback from the families has been incredible.
“Moms and dads have told me that this is the best day they’ve had since the shooting,” he said. “To be honest with you, it’s a gift from the families to us to allow themselves to trust us and allow us to do it. And also the community. (In certain areas) many people were deciding whether to rebuild homes or not. Then they see a new playground come out of the ground and it gives them hope that their community is coming back.”
It takes two to seven days to build a playground, and between 60-120 people to build them. Lavin hopes to continue the projects in places like Boston, to honor those who died in the marathon bombings last April, and in Moore, Okla., where a monster tornado ripped through town and killed a reported 51 people, 20 of them children, last spring.
“I think this is an idea that is going to be continued for quite some time,” he said.
Added Hensel: “If they go to Moore, Okla., I’d like to go because we know exactly what that was like for those parents to run to that school hoping and praying that their children were safe. So we would definitely do what we could to support that endeavor.”
Josephine Gay’s playground in Seaside Park in Bridgeport, Conn. (Photo courtesy of Sandy Ground Project)