Kraft family donates $25K to help Sandy Hook
On Sunday, the New England Patriots, like all of the other teams in the NFL, will have a moment of silence before their game against the San Francisco 49ers. The team will wear decals for Sandy Hook Elementary School and they will light 26 flares for the 26 victims.
Beyond that, because of a personal connection to the town, the team’s owners will donate $25,000 to help those in Newtown, Conn.
The town of Newtown is home to the Rand-Whitney corrugated box plant. The Kraft family (the owners of the Patriots) owns the plant, which is just a mile away from Sandy Hook Elementary School, Jonathan Kraft, the president of the New England Patriots, first found out about the tragedy because of a call to the plant.
On Friday, one of the managers of the plant was supposed to celebrate his retirement after working there for 15 years. Kraft had called to pass along his congratulations when the president of the plant picked up the phone, explained they had canceled the celebration and relayed the news. For Kraft, it became extremely important to help in whatever way his family could.
“To me, the adults who lost their children in this are so important, the future of the school and how it moves forward is important, the town is important,” Kraft said. “It’s not for us to make the decision on what to do with the money. But we’re gonna help.”
According to Kraft, the players also felt the impact of the horrible events that occurred on Friday.
“The players have been really effected by it, just hearing the guys talk,” Kraft said. “You never hear the guys talk about current events, but the guys were talking about it on Friday afternoon and Saturday in the building. A lot of guys have young children. A lot of guys have guns. There was a lot of talk here.”
As She’s Game Sports writer Tanya Ray Fox said, Sunday’s game between the Pats and the 49ers is not about the game. It’s about having the time to spend with family and to come together as a sports community to support those dealing with this tragedy. It appears the Kraft family feels the same way.
