Nicole Hockley, communications director, Sandy Hook Promise
NEWTOWN: There’s no hard feelings at the gun safety group Sandy Hook Promise about 11 Sandy Hook families who distanced themselves from the organization Wednesday over an upcoming Tim McGraw benefit concert.
Sandy Hook Promise has come out with a statement thanking those families for making it clear that proceeds from McGraw’s July 17 concert in Hartford will benefit the organization’s advocacy work, and not families who lost loved ones in the tragic 2012 elementary school shooting.
“Though all our materials and fundraising options make this clear, we thank the families that signed the letter to reinforce to their donors that the proceeds benefit Sandy Hook Promise,” the organization said in a prepared statement.
Sandy Hook Promise is led by several family members who lost love ones two years ago, when gunman Adam Lanza shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first-graders and six educators.
The non-profit group has been in the headlines since it announced earlier this month that country music star Tim McGraw would headline a benefit concert.
Gun rights advocates criticized McGraw, a gun owner, and accused him of selling out his principles. McGraw said he saw no contradiction between supporting gun ownership and supporting education and safety.
McGraw’s fiddle player, Dean Brown, is a friend of Mark Barden, Sandy Hook Promise’s advocacy director, whose son Daniel was killed in the 2012 shooting.
“The concert is meant to do something good for a community that is recovering,” McGraw said.
Then on Wednesday 11 families who lost loved ones in the 2012 shooting released a three-paragraph statement distancing themselves from Sandy Hook Promise, saying they themselves were not the beneficiaries of the concert, contrary to what some ticket buyers may have thought.
Sandy Hook Promise in its reply agreed that the clarification was important.
“The proceeds from this concert do not directly benefit any family or family foundation, including those families who lead Sandy Hook Promise,” the statement says.
“All proceeds benefit our non-profit 501(c)3 Foundation which funds our protection and prevention programs,” the statement says. “These initiatives in turn will help hundreds of thousands of children and families across the country.”