Newtown, CT, USA
Student, Sandy Hook Elementary School
12/14/2012, Newtown, CT, USA
Eyewitness News talked to the Parkers who have made it their mission to honor their daughter Emilie. They said she was a caring little girl, who loved pink and said she loved to be “fancy.”
Emilie Parker always had markers, pens and paper handy and ready to express her ideas. Her parents are trying to share her passion of art with Eyewitness News. Alissa and Robbie Parker, are working furiously with volunteers to construct a playground in New London where their six-year-old daughter Emilie would have loved to play.
“She loved pink, black and blue, those were her favorite three colors together,” said Alissa Parker. “Those are the colors that we chose for the playground and she would love it.”
The New London playground is one of 26 in the Sandy Ground Project. Each one of the playgrounds will be dedicated to those lost at Sandy Hook. They are built in areas affected by Superstorm Sandy, while helping families who suffered a different kind of loss.
Alissa and Robbie Parker said the playground was a way to honor their daughter with compassion and forgiveness instead of contention and division that seemed to come last December.
“Since Dec. 14, there have been a lot of labels that have been placed on people,” Robbie Parker said. “People have been called victims and declared themselves to be one thing or another, pro-gun or anti-gun. Or whatever it is. And that’s not a way to heal.”
Alissa and Robbie Parker said Emilie had a real passion for drawing and painting. Now her artwork will be a permanent part of the playground. Alissa and Robbie Parker said when parents come to the New London playground with their children, they want them to take a minute to realize that family is everything.
“We were blessed to have her in our life,” Robbie Parker said. “And I want to make sure that every body has that same feeling and take that responsibility as a parent seriously.”
“I hope that they come here and they realize how precious their little ones are to them,” Alissa Parker said. “That they can put their phones down, just something as simple as that to not take for granted the beautiful life in front of you.”
If you would like to celebrate Emilie’s love of art, her mom and dad would like you to make a donation to the Emilie Parker Art Connection. The charity that they set up to fund art programs in the community and in schools. The Emilie Parker Art Connection has already donated 100 canvases to the Danbury YMCA Arts Program where Emilie took art classes and they have donated enough money for two art program scholarships and camps.