Playground Celebrating the Life of Jesse McCord Lewis
The Jesse Lewis Playground ribbon cutting ceremony took place on May 4th, 2014 on West Beach in Stamford, Connecticut. The Stamford playground is the twentieth playground created for the Where Angels Play Foundation and was built in honor of Jesse Lewis who was a student at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Jesse’s playground was chosen for West Beach partly because his mother, Scarlett Lewis, grew up in Darien nearby. The playground took three days to complete.
Jesse's playground reflects Jesse in many ways and visitors to his playground will find clues about his personality. The play equipment is his favorite colors and there are large scale versions of his favorite toys. One sign has a drawing of a rubber duck, a reminder of Jesse’s prized collection. He had rubber ducks dressed like Batman, others wearing sombreros or football helmets, and one riding a motorcycle.
The playground also shows Jesse’s artwork and writing, including a welcome sign in his handwriting telling everyone to “Have a lot of fun," which was a message Jesse wrote to his brother shortly before his death. Jesse’s uncle, Trent Lewis, wrote in 2012 that Jesse lived by a rule: “Fun always comes first.”
Stamford can be proud to have a playground honoring 6-year-old Jesse, described in his eulogy as “a soldier on a mission,” with a fearless spirit, a helmet, and a pair of big boots.
