COMMUNITY NEWS

Using their ‘wings for change’

From Sandy Hook to L.I., nonprofits aim to keep kids safe

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Dylan Hockley was 6 years old when he was murdered in his first-grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012. When his mother, Nicole, thinks about what the second-deadliest mass shooting in American history — which claimed the lives of 19 other children and six educators — has meant to her, she is reminded of a story she told at Dylan’s funeral.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters of Child Abuse Prevention Services of Long Island gathered in East Meadow last week, Hockley explained that Dylan was autistic and frequently flapped his arms up and down. Although she did not expect him to answer because he had underdeveloped vocabulary and speech, she once asked him why he flapped. He said, “Because I am a beautiful butterfly.”

“To me, he really was,” she said. “There is a saying that a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane halfway around the world. Ever since his funeral, I think about all of the people — such as everyone here in this room — flapping their wings for change.”

CAPS leaders said they honored Hockley and Mark Barden, founders and managing directors of Sandy Hook Promise, with their Community Leadership Award at their 31st annual spring luncheon at the Carltun on April 14 because the pair have ushered in positive change across America in the aftermath of their sons’ killings. Leaders of both nonprofits said they hoped to work together to accomplish a similar goal: to keep children safe from harm, on Long Island and across the country.

Since 1982, CAPS has been Long Island’s leading resource on the prevention of bullying, child abuse and neglect and provided no-cost youth violence prevention and child safety education to students in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Executive Director Alane Fagin said. From Elmont to Seaford, she said, the organization has worked with school districts across the South Shore — including Baldwin, East Meadow, Freeport and Merrick.

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