Ian Hockley, a father who lost his six-year-old son Dylan in the Sandy Hook School shooting seven years ago, started the nonprofit, Dylan’s Wings of Change. The organization’s Wingman program develops social and emotional skills in children through team building activities, while inspiring them to be more empathetic, courageous and inclusive young leaders. Jennifer Heitzke, a kindergarten teacher at Stepney Elementary School, had learned about Wingman at a fundraiser years ago. “I was impressed and thought to myself, ‘this is what Stepney Elementary School needs,'” she recalled. “We needed something to teach kids compassion, empathy and inclusion — something that we had learned on the playground.
