Newtown, CT, USA
Student, Sandy Hook Elementary School
12/14/2012, Newtown, CT, USA
Avielle Richman, known to her family as Avie, moved from San Diego to Connecticut with her family a couple of years ago and was still known by her parents as “their California girl.”
Avie was one of the 20 children who lost their lives this past Friday at the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. The curly-headed little girl loved a lot of things – horses, Harry Potter, the color red. After watching the Disney movie “Brave,” she even tried archery. She told her parents that her dream car was a minivan. To reward her for reading over the summer, they took her to lunch. Avie moved to Connecticut about two years ago with her parents, Jeremy Richman and Jennifer Hensel.
“They still call Avielle their California girl,” Melissa C. Stewart, a family friend, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “When they first moved here, it was hard to keep shoes on Avielle because she was so used to running barefoot on the beach in San Diego.”
In a blog called “Avielle’s Adventures,” Richman would tell friends about their family life: trips to the Thanksgiving Day parade in Stamford, Arielle’s 6th birthday at the horse stable, a road trip to Iowa. The blog was last updated on Nov. 19, with a picture of an Oscar the Grouch balloon in the Stamford Thanksgiving Day Parade. It also documented Avie’s birthday celebration in October with a party at the Zoar Ridge stables, where Avie was taking her horseback riding lessons.
“Today is Avielle’s sixth birthday,” her dad wrote. “I know that every parents says this, but holy cow, I can’t believe how fast the time flies!”
In August, he wrote about the newest milestone for his “little hummingbird,” who was about to start first grade at Sandy Hook. “We can’t believe it,” he wrote. “Jenn and I are both very nervous and excited.”