Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sandy Hook educators who laid down their lives for children are among an elite class of honorees. One was Mary Sherlach, whose daughter and son-in-law live in South Jersey.
WASHINGTON – Receiving an award from the president on her mother’s behalf was a bittersweet experience for Erica Lafferty. The bitter part is that an award, no matter how prestigious, can never bring her mother back. The sweet part is that all of the national attention will make sure people always remember the great deeds of her mother, Sandy Hook Principal Dawn (Lafferty) Hochsprung. “All of the honors don’t make anything easier,” she said. “But it is nice that the government and everyone else is realizing all of the good she did and all of the efforts those educators put into that school.” Hochsprung was one of the six educators who died Dec. 14 while trying to protect students at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty students also died …
Saturday, February 9, 2013
The Sandy Hook school psychologist was among 26 people killed in the Dec. 14, 2012, school shooting. Her daughter and son-in-law live in Deptford.
The town that Mary Sherlach called home is honoring her in a special way. Town council in Trumbull, CT, voted unanimously last week to rename the Trumbull Counseling Center after her. Sherlach, a school psychologist, was killed in the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, on Dec. 14, 2012. Sherlach's daughter, Maura Schwartz, and Maura's husband, Eric Schwartz, are Deptford residents. Eric Schwartz is a regular freelancer for Patch, covering high-school sports in South Jersey. Sherlach's husband, William Sherlach, attended the Trumbull council meeting Monday night. Before the vote, First Selectman Tim Herbst said Sherlach gave her life for the students and teachers at Sandy Hook, and deserved the honor. He …
Thursday, December 20, 2012
A group of about 30 mourners stood in the winter night with candles, led in prayer by a convocation of community religious leaders.
The grief of families from Newtown, CT—site of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School last week—continues to reverberate throughout the nation. But, as the saying goes, it's better to light a candle than curse the darkness. In Collingswood, a group of residents gathered together Wednesday evening outside the old Zane School on Haddon Avenue to unite in a silent vigil for those lost in the violence. The group carried votives, sung hymns like "Silent Night" and "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and joined hands for a group prayer. Their mood was appropriately solemn; efforts to keep things quiet were disrupted somewhat by evening traffic and loud chatter from a handful of restaurant patrons across the street. That didn't matter to Kate …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Upon returning to school Monday, Collingswood students and teachers worked together to keep perspective after the shooting in Connecticut.
It was a tougher-than-usual goodbye Monday morning for parents dropping off their kids at schools throughout Collingswood, said Superintendent Scott Oswald. "Kids were low-key, especially this morning," he said. "Parents were giving an extra-hard hug." In the wake of the elementary school shooting in Sandy Hook, CT, families and educators alike are still searching for ways to put the event in perspective. Their responses varied from the emotional to the detached, he said. Mostly, everyone was just trying to get through the day. Oswald described the mood districtwide Monday as "solemn." Kids were not talking about the event, he said, and several parents asked that teachers not make it a focus of discussion. They almost needn't have worried…
Friday, December 14, 2012
Mary Sherlach, the mother-in-law of Patch writer Eric Schwartz, was among 27 people killed in the second-deadliest school shooting in American history.
The deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, claimed the life of a Patch writer's family member. Mary Sherlach, the school's psychologist, was among 26 people, including 20 children, who died when a gunman opened fire at the school Friday morning. The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, also died in the rampage. Sherlach was the mother-in-law of Deptford resident Eric Schwartz, a longtime Patch freelancer who covers high school sports in South Jersey. Sherlach, 56, lived in Trumbull, CT. Schwartz and his wife, Maura, arrived in Connecticut on Friday evening to be with their family. They could not be reached for comment. In the shooting spree, Lanza also reportedly killed his mother, who was a teacher …
Candi Strudwick
12:00 am on Sunday, December 23, 2012
How sweet, I wish I would have know about it we would have definitely been there. Love our Collingswood community! Loving thoughts and prayers to all of the families. more ›