Local couple with ties to CT

APPLETON - We're getting a first hand account of how Newtown, Conn. is rebuilding after a school shooting. An Appleton couple has family living very close to Sandy Hook School.

Despite the devastation, they say the support from near and far is building strength day by day.

Word of the shooting hit close to home for Mike and Melissa Rospenda of Appleton.

"My heart literally, I think, skipped a beat," Melissa said.

Her in-laws live about a mile away from Sandy Hook Elementary School. Her nephew attends high school in Newtown.

"There's an overwhelming question of, why us?" explained Mike Rospenda.

The couple says it's been an unimaginable last few days.

"You know, they've seen the caskets, they've seen the little kids," Mike said. "My sister-in-law is workout buddies with some of the moms that lost kids, so it's tough."

The family did not want to speak with FOX 11 directly. However, Mike says his brother told him the community is growing stronger.    

And he wanted viewers to know the kindness and support has been overwhelming.

"They went for lunch at the grocery store - the grocery store would be about the size of a drug store around here - and somebody called in a $1,000 and said lunch is on us today," Mike explained. "Somebody else went to the coffee shop around the corner and they were going to have coffee and the waitress said coffee is on us today. Somebody called in and said let us know at the end of the day, we're paying the bill."

Local high schoolers are also chipping in.

"My nephew and his buddies got together and they've made a t-shirt design that they're going to use to raise money for a memorial for the kids," Mike said.

Melissa Rospenda is a teacher at Houdini Elementary School in Appleton. She says Sandy Hook students will also see support from their peers in Wisconsin.

"We're making snowflakes, we're making hearts that will be able to be used to decorate the new school for when the students return so they feel loved and special," Melissa said.

And those small gestures they hope, will help get the community back on its feet and somehow find some normalcy.