The resilient family of a beloved school psychologist, killed during the Newtown massacre, unveiled a colorful playground in Breezy Point Sunday celebrating the life of Mary Sherlach.
Bill Sherlach, and his two daughters Maura Schwartz, 29, and Katy Sherlach, 26, toured the red and green Bayside Ave. jungle gym, which they helped design.
The 56-year-old mom was one of 26 victims gunned down by Adam Lanza last December at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Mary Sherlach’s was the school’s longtime counselor.
“We are trying to stay positive,” said Bill Sherlach, 56, who decorated the play area with images of his wife’s favorite flower, the rose. “You can run under the covers and stay there. Or you can carry on whatever your loved one was all about. Mary was all about the kids.”
Mary Sherlach’s Playground is one of 16 new jungle gyms built by The Sandy Ground Project – a nonprofit in the midst of erecting playgrounds across Connecticut, New Jersey and New York memorializing each person slain during the gruesome tragedy.
Breezy Point was picked for the Mary Sherlach park because of her love of water and her New York ties: Both Mary Sherlach and her husband went to SUNY-Cortland. A drawing of the university’s football helmet is etched on the side of the jungle gym, near a golden bell which kids are invited to ring in her honor.
“They say – ‘every time a bell rings an angel gets its wings,'” said Bill Lavin, The Sandy Ground Project’s founder.
Superstorm Sandy’s destruction of Breezy Point was also a big reason why the waterfront Queens neighborhood was chosen to house the Sherlach site.
“Playgrounds are a symbol of a community coming back,” Lavin said.
Scores of local kids flocked to the park within an hour after its opening, packing onto the red slides and white monkey bars, enjoying the rare 70-degree December afternoon.
“I think this is awesome,” shouted 7-year-old Patrick Fitzgerald as his dad Sean Fitzgerald, 41, debated how to share the playground’s history with its young fan.
“It’s amazing that this is here. The people of Newtown thought of us after what they went through,” Sean Fitzgerald said.
