How You Can Help Newtown

I'm no longer comfortable doing--essentially--nothing...except be devastated, avoid the news coverage ('cause I "take it in" too much), type a condolence message, hit Send.

If, like me, you want to do something to help the people of Newtown, CT, and to work toward preventing future violence in our world, here are a few ideas.

Help send the book It's Okay to Cry to the 700 Sandy Hook students.

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This is something that has the potential to truly help these precious children...and can be embraced regardless of political persuasion.

Eleven-year-old Tatiana Grieve Oliver lost her father when she was 2 years old. When she was nine, she wrote It's Okay to Cry to help other grieving children. She has written a letter to the children of Sandy Hook, so I'll let her tell us more:

I know what it feels like to lose someone. I watched my daddy die. I wrote IT'S OKAY TO CRY when I was nine. My little sister, Keira, illustrated it, and my Mommy took the photographs and helped me publish the book. It is about the things I went through after my daddy died. The feelings I felt. And the things that have helped me find happiness again. It has activities and helpful messages. I really hope it helps you get through the hard times.

My Mommy, Keira, and I are ordering, signing, and sending 700 copies of IT'S OKAY TO CRY to you because I want each of the children at the school to have one. We have faith that all of the people who want to send you their love will donate enough money to cover our expenses. No matter what, we will get them to you.

From Tatiana's mommy: "We will be getting all of the books to Newtown, Connecticut by December 31st with a note that includes each of your names." You can help get these books to Newtown by donating here. (Look for the Paypal "Donate" button.)

Are there other ways you know of that we can directly help? If so, please link them up in the comments.

As for working toward prevention...

If you think we need focus on gun control, partner up with organizations working to end gun violence. Here are two (each logo is linked to that organization's action/get-involved page):

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If you think gun control isn't the answer, feel free to simply choose a different method to help.

If you think we need to focus on improving access to mental health care, get involved with organizations working on that. Here are two of those:

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I'm sure I've just scratched the surface here. As I said above, if you know of other ways to directly help the residents of Newtown, or if you know of other ways to work toward preventing violence, please link them up in the comments.

Note: This post is not about arguing about gun control. Please respect the spirit of ways-to-help in your comments. Thanks.