NEWTOWN, Conn. — 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 and took 19 teenagers to Oklahoma, where they assisted in tornado cleanup.
The next summer, 20 more Newtown teens traveled to Colorado to help people rebuild their homes after destructive floods. A third group is headed to Colorado next month.
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 counseling, coping and community-building activities for younger children.
Chairman Rick Haylon said the trips are designed to give the teenagers perspective and to empower them at a time when many feel powerless.
Cayden Dunn, 15, said it gave him an outlet to talk about the Sandy Hook tragedy, something he said he didn’t know he needed to do until he traveled to Loveland. His mother signed him up for the trip.
He spent a week replacing plasterboard inside the flooded-out home of an older couple.
“I really connected with the dad,” he said. “We had some long, really good talks just about life in general and how things happen to you.”
