Clancy Children Playground in Duxbury aims to be a “joyful place after tragedy”
By BREANA PITTS
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DUXBURY, Massachusetts (WBZ) — It has almost been one year since the tragedy that took the lives of Cora, Dawson and Callan Clancy. Now, there is a new effort to help the Clancy family and the community of Duxbury heal.
“When something tragic happens I think that you look around for what can you do, and when something is really difficult like this, it’s hard to know,” Mell Kelleher told WBZ-TV.
Kelleher is a member of The Clancy Children Playground Committee. It’s a group of ten local women, all health care professionals, who have made it their mission to make sure the Clancy children are not forgotten.
“All the committee members had the same goal in mind of getting this playground built in honor of these beautiful children,” Kelleher said.
The committee turned to Where Angels Play, a New Jersey-based foundation that specializes in creating joyful spaces like playgrounds as a way to promote healing and recovery in the wake of a tragedy.
“We don’t focus on how they left, but how they lived,” Where Angels Play founder Bill Lavin told WBZ. “Not everyone wants to go to a cemetery or a church. Historically, these playgrounds have provided healing in the most tragic of circumstances.”
Lavin started the foundation back in 2012 after the back-to-back tragedies of Hurricane Sandy and Sandy Hook. The foundation built 26 playgrounds, one to honor the memory of each teacher or student lost in Newtown, Connecticut.
“I think just being human and knowing what people have gone through. It impacted everybody. You didn’t need to be a mother or a grandmother, the community suffered with the family,” committee member Beth Brooks told WBZ.
Brooks says that Cora, Dawson and Callan’s father Patrick Clancy will be involved in the design every step of the way to make sure the playground embodies the children’s personalities and spirit.
“Really every decision went through the kids’ dad. He gave us his blessing very early on that this was a project that was very important to him. Cora loved unicorns and Dawson loved firetrucks and Callan’s spirit was all about happiness,” Brooks said. “So that will be the vision for the playground, to bring that to the community for their friends to play there and for the entire community to heal.”
“It is going to be a joyful place after tragedy,” Kelleher added.
The Clancy Children Playground Committee raised $120,000 at a recent gala, but still needs to raise another $180,000.
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