Newtown Author Highlights The Groups That Helped

From Newtown Kindness to the Catherine Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, from Healing Newtown to Ben's Lighthouse — a local writer has created a chronicle of the more than one hundred groups born to help Newtown in the aftermath of Dec. 14.

Sharon Cohen has lived in Newtown for 30 years and has been writing professionally since the 1980s on every subject under the sun — from academic to business to non-profit. She's worked as a travel writer and a ghost writer, and she's self-published several books on e-commerce.

"Any kind of writing, you name it," she laughs. But her latest self-published effort — Newtown: Moving Forward — is dearest to her heart. It's a chronicle of the many groups that sprung up to help Newtowners recover in 2013.

"I was amazed to see how quickly Newtown responded, for good or for bad," she says. "It was a difficult time, and the challenges we faced were tremendous. I thought Newtown could offer a lot of help with that."

In her research — digging through back issues of the Bee and Newtown Patch archives — she found far more organizations than she expected, and far more success.

"I was told there'd be resiliency," she says. "I was told humans are extremely resilient. But I never expected such an outpouring of love and compassion from the parents. That, to me, was unbelievable."

The organizations founded through the efforts of parents of victims stood out to her most, she says.

"I never counted, but about half the foundations are started by parents of the children," she says. "These are the ones that are amazing — Ben's Lighthouse, the Catherine Hubbard Animal Sanctuary, Newtown Kindness."

A former member of the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission, Cohen says arts, music, concerts and dance also played a leading role. She notes, though, that some organizations have already served their purpose. SHACK (The Sandy Hook Arts Center for Kids) and the Sandy Hook Arcade Center are gone now, but the memory of their contributions lives on.

"There's so little money available now for non-profits and organizations that when there's a collaboration, you can go so much farther," she says.

Newtown: Moving Forward is available in an initial self-published run of 75 copies at the C.H. Booth Library, Steve's Butcher Shop, The Wishing Well and Everything Newtown. All profits go to the Newtown Lions Club.