On Wednesday, December 19, 2012 I posted the blog entry Snowflakes for Sandy Hook. I was still reeling from the tragedy in Newtown, CT just 5 days before. Like everyone else, I desperately wanted to do something to make sense of this, to contribute somehow to make it all better. I had seen the PTA call for snowflakes in my Twitter feed and happily posted it, all the while making plans to spend our first week back at school making snowflakes for Sandy Hook.

And then on December 27 I saw a post by the Newtown Bee with a request (really a plea) for people to stop sending snowflakes. I was disappointed that we couldn’t participate, really disappointed. But I understood that there were too many snowflakes arriving every day and it was actually becoming a problem for the people in Newtown. The last thing any of us wanted to do was to create a problem for Newtown. So I regretfully posted Too Many Snowflakes, to explain that we would not be participating.

Back at school after the holidays and vacation, I had quickly become immersed in the day-to-day business of the art room and had pretty much forgotten about the snowflakes. The hardest group to explain it to were the art club, who had been expecting to make snowflakes. Needless to say, they were also disappointed not to be making the snowflakes. Then last night I was watching CBS Sunday Morning (yes, on a Monday night, thanks to DVR) and was pleasantly surprised to see the Snowflakes for Sandy Hook campaign featured. Here is the link to the video:

I feel good watching this. I am glad that so many people sent snowflakes. I am not one bit surprised that they received so many of them. I have a little twinge of regret that we didn’t make them and send them anyway, just to be part of this. However I know for sure that we did the right, responsible thing. I love the part at the end when the interviewer asks if the PTA president has regrets and the PTA president responds, “No. Because it is awesome.” I agree, it truly is awesome….