"My Mom is special because she senz me to scol."
John, that's what my beautiful butterfly Dylan wrote on a drawing he made me for Mother's Day in 2012. Later that year, I sent Dylan to school on the morning of December 14 – but my baby boy never came home. He was murdered in his first-grade classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary.
His big brother, Jake, did come home from Sandy Hook that day – but I couldn't send him back there. I honestly don't remember how long we kept him home after Dylan was murdered. When we did send Jake to school, I insisted on driving him there and back every day, so I knew he made it. I still had many panic attacks.
I don't want any other parent to experience the nightmare of sending their child to school and never seeing them again. I don't want any other parent to worry that their child won't come home.
That's why I do this work every day even though I know it's not healthy for me to keep reliving Dylan's murder, and why these fundraising goals to expand our lifesaving programs are so important to me. But with our match deadline coming up tomorrow, we're still $158,928 short of securing every dollar.
Children's lives are at risk, so this is crucial: Please, will you donate right now to double your impact and help protect more children from gun violence this school year?
We're working so hard to close this fundraising gap because we know our programs work – they helped avert multiple school shooting threats just last school year. But even though I know how much good we can do, there will always be a hole in my heart without my baby boy.
Dylan is frozen forever in time. There are no new pictures of him, no new school photos. This is the life I have to live now, and saving other families is the only way I can think to honor him and get through each day.
Thank you for helping me do that, and for helping me protect other children from gun violence.
With love,
Nicole Hockley (Dylan's mom)
