Newtown resident Mackenzie Page and Joplin, Missouri, resident Sandy King met in person just once, more than seven years ago, but that was all it took for Page to leave a lasting impression on King. It was Page’s act of kindness, and a continued project that raised funds for others, that led to a beautiful graduation gift for Page, a recent college graduate.

“We teasingly told her that she was going to be governor of Connecticut,” King said this week, on the phone from her home in Joplin, Mo. “We really feel her strength of leadership is that strong.”

Page graduated from Babson College in Massachusetts last month. While the Newtown resident does not plan to go into politics, the visit with King, and others with her, resonated so strongly that King surprised the Newtown resident with a very special graduation gift.

Inside a package that arrived recently was a handmade 50- by 70-inch quilt featuring a pattern called “Punkin’ Patch.” The pattern by Bonnie Hunter was selected by King to specifically commemorate Page and her fundraiser, The Great Pumpkin Challenge, or GPC as Page calls it.

Launched in 2011, GPC began when Page was a student at Newtown Middle School. She was inspired, she told The Newtown Bee that year, to support family friend Zoe McMorran, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer.

Page invited residents to carve a pumpkin, drop it off for display at her family’s Main Street home in the days before Halloween, and offer a suggested donation of $5. Proceeds during the first few years of the event were divided between covering some of McMorran’s medical costs and donations for The Hole in The Wall Gang Camp, Paul Newman’s nonprofit organization for seriously ill children. By 2012 all donations were going to the camp.

The challenge was transferred to the youth group at Trinity Church when Page entered college, but to many — including the Kings — the annual event will always be associated with Mackenzie Page.

“I saw the pattern in a quilt magazine, by a designer that I follow,” King said June 29. “I knew when I saw it that I wanted to do it for Mackenzie.”

A Chance Meeting

Page and King met in January 2013. King and her husband Richard were part of a group of Immanuel Lutheran Church Comfort (LCC) Dog Team members visiting Newtown after the 12/14 tragedy. The group is affiliated with LCC K-9 Comfort Dogs, a national program that has a pair of dogs living with members of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Newtown.

The Page family was part of a group of residents who planned a surprise party for a Sandy Hook resident struggling with the aftermath of the shootings. King remembers that event, presented in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall.

“One of the first places we visited was the party, and Mackenzie had been part of organizing that,” King recalled. The Kings heard about Mackenzie’s involvement in the surprise during the party, but did not connect until a chance meeting a few days later.

“Several times we had talked about a young girl who had done this, and how awesome that was,” King shared. “We had lunch several times that visit at the General Store. There was a group of teenagers at the table one afternoon, and we asked if any of them knew Mackenzie — and her brother was there.”

That chance meeting during lunch led to the brief sit-down between Page, who was 15 at the time, and the Kings.

Calling Page “a light,” King, now 77, said it was the fact “this young girl did something so wonderful for someone else” that remained in the minds of the Joplin group.

When they visited Newtown, the Missouri group was about 18 months removed from a tragedy of their own. An EF-5 tornado in Joplin on May 22, 2011, caused more than 160 fatalities.

“We had just come from a town where we had lost a third of our town to a tornado,” King explained. “We were going through the recovery process, and we were very aware of the mindset, and what happens, when a devastating thing happens to you.”

The Kings lost their home in the tornado. They spent three years rebuilding, King said this week. The visit to Newtown was midway through that process.

“We had lost our home, and we needed to get out of town for a little bit, so coming to Newtown had multiple reasons,” she said.

King said she and the others “felt like there was a gray cloud over everything, just like it was in Joplin,” she said.

“It was [palpable],” she said. “You could feel it in your bones, and the fact that this young girl had done something to lighten that, to bring some joy to someone, was very special. It just stood out to us.”

For the next few years, Facebook allowed King to keep in touch with Liz Page, Mackenzie’s mother, who had a store in Southbury. Mackenzie often modeled new clothing, jewelry, and other accessories in photos that appeared on the Facebook page of Newbury Place, the store her mother and two other business partners owned for many years.

“I could see Mackenzie when they would photograph her with some of the clothes and things,” King said, adding that while she and the younger Page did not have direct contact over the years, she would send occasional notes to Liz Page.

Each year when it was time for The Great Pumpkin Challenge, King was right there, offering support from afar.

“We’d tell them we were praying for them,” she said.

Page remembers the online comments.

“She would definitely write really sweet things, especially around GPC time,” she said last week. “She’d always write the nicest comments. You don’t usually get that from people you’ve only met for one week.

“They obviously came here to help the community, and provide support for us,” Page added. “They definitely did that. They were incredible. My family and I didn’t expect the relationship afterwards. It was really special.”

Wrapped In Love

Liz Page and her partners sold Newbury Place to new owners last year. The businesswoman has already launched a new business. Mackenzie Page didn’t give it a second thought when a box arrived at the family’s home last month.

“It was addressed to my mom, so I thought she got some new merchandise,” Mackenzie said. “But then I saw the return address.”

Sandy King had reached out to Liz Page for her mailing address, only telling her that she was sending something for Mackenzie’s graduation.

That “something” was the quilt, which King has been working on, she said, for a few years.

The blanket is a scrap quilt, with hundreds of pieces of fabric working into the final design.

Its top includes 49 pumpkins, each sewn onto paper before being added to the full design.

“I hate that,” King said of sewing onto paper. “I just hate it, but I did it,” she added with a laugh.

The edge is equally challenging, with dozens of small green fabric squares.

“I got to the edge” of the quilt, said King, “and worked on it, and then put it aside.

“And then I worked on it, and would put it aside,” she said. “There were times when I gritted my teeth, but I just knew I had to do it for her.”

The recipient of those efforts said the gift “definitely took me off guard. I did not expect it. I knew she did quilts for veterans, but I didn’t think she would send me one.

“It was very unexpected, and so sweet to do,” Page continued.

When they rebuilt their home, the Kings made sure there was plenty of space for Sandy’s quilting.

“We put a second floor area over the garage, to be my quilt studio,” King said. She spends a few hours quilting every day, she said, and donates three or four quilts annually to The Quilts of Valor Foundation.

Like that of so many others, Page’s academic year came to an unexpected end with the arrival of COVID-19. In-person studies ended early, but she did graduate in May, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science in business administration. She expects to begin her career as a customer experience analyst with CVS Health in just a few weeks.

“I opened this [gift box] during the midst of COVID times,” Page said. “I left a lot of people at school, and it was already an emotional semester with these life transitions.

“It was fun to open this and be brought right back to all the love, and the laughs, and the kindness they brought to our community,” she added. “It brought back a lot of emotions, that’s for sure.

“It took me a second to realize it was all pumpkins, and then I got a little emotional,” Page continued. “It was one of those moments when you feel the love from someone.”

King feels she and Page were meant to meet years ago. Something about that young lady stayed with King and her friends as they traveled 1,100-plus miles back to their home. The graduation gift is a material offering of something that has grown between King and Page over time, even if they have not been able to see each other again.

“We feel the good Lord shows us things for a reason, and he brought Mackenzie to us,” King said this week. “The entire Comfort team will mention her occasionally; it’s not just me. We really care about her, and felt that she would be a light to the community.

“There were lots of prayers for that young lady.”