In Newtown, Conn., a smile can go a long way. But Newtown High School traffic agent Kathy Holick doesn’t just smile. She dances.
She really, really dances.
As the 47-year-old grandmother guides students and drivers on the road, she shakes, groves and boogies to the music playing from her cellphone.
Known as “Kat, the traffic lady,” residents make special detours just to catch a glimpse of her, the Hartford Courant reports. A beloved icon in the community, her public Facebook page (where she posts messages of positivity and inspirational quotes) has more than 1,400 Likes.
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“Everyone seems to love her and she has put smiles on many faces,” Newtown resident John Bergquist told the Courant. “If she was directing traffic in any town across the country she would deserve praise and attention for the unique approach to her job. But someone who stands out for her kindness is especially meaningful in a community that is still healing from a massive trauma.”
The world seemed to stop on December 14, 2012 after a gunman opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary, taking the lives of 26 people, including 20 children.
“It is just so inspiring to see someone who is a point of light that reminds us to be positive, to treat each other with love and compassion, and that there’s still a lot of good in our community and elsewhere. She gives us hope and leaves us with a smile every day,” Bergquist added.
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In the video below, you’ll see that Holick, who was born and raised in Sandy Hook, brings every ounce of her infectious spirit to her job.
Brushing off her positive impact to the town, at 1:19, she chokes up as she recounts the small tokens of appreciation that she receives from community members.
“‘All I do is just try to make people happy,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting the gifts.”
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Tag: Sandy Hook
The Moving New Video That’s Prompting Viewers to Act on an Important Issue
In a moving new video published by Generation Progress to protest gun violence, a young African-American man and a young white woman stand side by side on a crowded stage.
“On May 10, my friend Blair Holt was shot and killed on a Chicago city bus,” the young man says, staring straight at the camera.
“On December 14, my mom survived the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school,” the young woman says.
The video is part of a new #Fight4the33 campaign to honor the young victims of gun violence — and to remind Congress that young people want them to act.
Generation Progress, a national organization that works with young people to promote progressive solutions to social problems, teamed up with the Director of the National Jazz Theater of Harlem, Jon Baptiste and students from Duke Ellington High School in Washington, D.C., to create the video.
Throughout the video, young bodies dance across the stage, falling and rising in a twisted version of “Ring Around the Rosy” while students speak to the horrifying facts of gun violence in the United States. Thirty-three people are murdered by guns every day in America. An American under the age of 25 dies by gunfire every 70 minutes. Baptiste sings “We all fall down” as the camera pans over the crumpled bodies of the students lying on the stage.
The launch of the #Fight4the33 campaign, named for the 33 daily victims of gun violence, coincided with the anniversaries of the Columbine and Virginia Tech school shootings. It has also been one year since Congress’ failed vote to pass comprehensive background check legislation.
The film ends with a young woman standing alone, looking in devastation on the fallen bodies of her peers.
The video makes you want to act — and you can, by remembering those who have died, and by joining the #Fight4the33 campaign.