New playground built in Breezy Point honors Newtown massacre victims

BY CLARE TRAPASSO / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2013,

Mary Sherlach, 56, school psychologist at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, was shot dead trying to save her students from a crazed gunman last December.

A new playground in a Hurricane Sandy-ravaged beach community will attempt to heal the wounds of two tragedies.

The Sandy Ground Project is building the children’s area this week in Breezy Point in honor of Sandy Hook Elementary school psychologist Mary Sherlach, who was killed in the massacre.

The New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association created the project to erect 26 playgrounds in Hurricane Sandy devastated communities throughout the tri-state area. Each will be dedicated in honor of a Newtown victim.

Scherlach’s husband and two daughters helped design the play area.

ANTHONY DELMUNDO/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

An American flag hangs on one of the homes that was destroyed by a massive fire in Breezy Point, New York caused by hurricane Sandy on Nov. 1, 2012.

“I got this idea that maybe this is how we could heal and recover from both tragedies,” said Bill Lavin, the former president of the association.

“It celebrates how the children and teachers from Newtown lived — rather than how they died.”

The group built three playgrounds in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.