Annual Charlotte Bacon Act Of Kindness Awards Celebrated At Edmond Town Hall
Newtown Kindness honored children for embodying its mission “think kindly, act boldly” during this year’s Annual Charlotte Bacon Act of Kindness Awards ceremony, held at Edmond Town Hall during the evening of Saturday, February 21.
Despite the snowy weather, many attended the event, which was also provided through a live-stream program for viewers to watch.
Newtown Kindness is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded subsequent to the tragedy at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on 12/14 in an effort to encourage, facilitate, and recognize the value of kindness, according to the organization. Its mission is to promote kindness as a guiding principle of humanity, according to Newtown Kindness.
Charlotte Bacon, one of the victims on 12/14, inspired the making of Newtown Kindness and its programs. The first Charlotte Bacon Acts of Kindness Awards ceremony was in February 2013.
“Charlotte is certainly looking down and smiling on Edmond Town Hall today,” said Newtown Kindness Chairman Aaron Carlson when he came to the stage during the ceremony.
Mr Carlson gave a brief explanation of what Newtown Kindness is “all about,” before what he called the “best-ever collection of kind kids” were honored during the awards ceremony.
This year’s ceremony honored 45 children between the ages 5 and 18, from 17 states and Canada, and an entire school in Iowa, according to a press release from Newtown Kindness.
During the event, Charlotte’s parents, Joel and JoAnn Bacon, along with author Renata Bowers and illustrator Michael Chesoworth, also spoke about Good Dogs, Great Listeners, The Story of Charlotte, Lily and the Litter as an “endearing children’s book about loyalty, dogs, friendship, and literacy.”gooddogsgreatlisteners.com), a book described on the book’s website (
Lily, the family’s dog, even took the stage for the announcement about the book.
“The bond between children and dogs is such an amazing connection,” Mrs Bacon said, when speaking about the making of the book.
Mrs Bacon said the family wanted to share the “authentic Charlotte,” who she described as bold, curious, adventurous, fun, a little bit of trouble, and with “enough sweetness to touch the whole world.”
That effort became Good Dogs, Great Listeners, The Story of Charlotte, Lily and the Litter.
According to Newtown Kindness, the roughly 500 attendees included Newtown first responders, community members, and therapy/comfort dogs and handlers from Newtown Kindness’s therapy dog program, Charlotte’s Litter.
The event also shared news and expectations for the next year for the Charlotte’s Litter program.
As Mr Carlson explained before the awards ceremony, hosting the Charlotte Bacon Acts of Kindness Awards empowers children. There are a lot of needs in the world, Mr Carlson said, and the children honored by the Charlotte Bacon Acts of Kindness Awards are helping people with those needs.
“The youth are certainly the key to the future,” Mr Carlson said, adding that the children being honored are already working toward making the future better.
Award Winners
The 2015 Charlotte Bacon Acts of Kindness Awards Honorees are: Mackenzie Murphy and Caitline Haacke, both of Alberta, Canada; locally, JT Lewis, Beckett Trado, Ava Carlson, and Sonya Stanczyk of Newtown and Sydney Allen of Sandy Hook; Tanner and Landon Wall of Brookfield; Ava Messina and Grace Cerneck of Southbury and Middlebury, respectively; Annie Blumenfeld of Fairfield; Landon Pokrinchak of New Milford; Makendra Moward of Bristol; Sierra and Emalena Preveza of Madison; Kyle Simonds of Naugatuck; and Lexi Kelley of Stamford.
From Texas, Reagan Forrest of Pearland, Hector Montoya of Dallas, and Will Lourcey of Fort Worth; from Florida, Miranda Fuentes of Pembroke Pines, Joshua Williams of Miami Beach, and Jaylen Arnold of Tampa; and from California, Kira Weiss of Danville, Mano Ranaweera of San Jose, Madison Stein of Los Angeles, and Jessica Carscadden of San Diego.
Also, Emma Lock of Tucson, Ariz.; Matthew Kaplan of Phoenix, Ariz.; Jaide Workman of Anchorage, Alaska; Ethan Eckman and Jordan Barth of Baldwin City, Kan.; Noah Wilson of St Olathe, Kan.; Kylee McCumber of Leominster, Mass.; Jesse Kaufman of Monroeville and Kylie Kuhns of Mifflinburg, both in Pennsylvania; Imani Henry of Wilmington, Del.; Jacob Cramer of Pepper Pike, Ohio.
Raymond Mohler, Jr, of Lynbrook, N.Y.; Christopher Yao of Jericho, N.Y.; William Manganis of Chelmsford, Mass.; Cayden Taipalus of Howell, Mich.; Ethan Zink of Melrose, Minn.; Katie Stagliano of Summerville, S.C.; Reshini Premaratne of Richmond City, Va.; and Willowwind School in Iowa City, Iowa.
For more information about each of the honorees, including the honors they received and why they received them, visit Newtown Kindness’s website, newtownkindness.org.
According to Newtown Kindness, the honorees received gifts ranging from tickets to see a Broadway musical to attending a major sports game and a chance to meet their favorite player, along with a donation to a charity of the recipient’s choice, to further support the efforts and programs the honorees believe in.
Music was performed throughout the event, which included performances by The Alternate Routes and Darien resident Taylor Felt.
The awards ceremony concluded with children joining The Alternate Routes on stage to sing their song “Nothing More,” which has raised more than $10,000 for Newtown Kindness through the song’s purchase, according to the presentation.