Jenna Von Oy, Sandy Hook Native 'Blossom' Star Writes Tribute To Victims In Hometown
Many celebrities have expressed sentiment and support in the wake of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14. There is one celebrity, with whom this has greatly affected, actress Jenna von Oy. The television actress was not only born and raised in Newtown, Conn., but her parents still live there and she went to school with some of the parents who lost their children in the horrific shooting.
Von Oy, who played a sidekick on the 90s NBc sitcom "Blossom," first revealed her ties to the town when she sent a tweet during President Obama's prayer vigil on Dec. 16.
"Watching the vigil take place at my high school auditorium tonight," Von Oy tweeted. "It's incredibly surreal. Lots of heartfelt prayers going up right now."
"Every school shooting I've ever heard about has been exceedingly heartbreaking and has stirred feelings of both rage and sorrow in me," von Oy wrote for an essay in People. "Each one is tragic and awful, and there have been far too many of them in recent years. But Friday's massacre in Newtown has affected me in a profoundly personal way, as I have a unique perspective on the town ... I am blessed to have grown up there.
"I am fiercely proud to say I was born and raised in Newtown," she continued. "It is where I was brought home from the hospital, attended my first day of kindergarten, learned to ride my bike and climbed my first tree. As I watched President Obama's press conference [on Friday], I sobbed as he mentioned that the children who died had their whole lives ahead of them: graduations, weddings, having children of their own. I have celebrated every one of those milestones in Newtown. ... It is nearly impossible to unscramble my thoughts and put them to paper at a time like this, but I wanted to express my love and support for the town that has given me so many wonderful memories."
Von Oy married Brad Bratcher, a Dell computer data consultant in 2010 at a bed-and-breakfast in Newtown. When one of her wedding guests, actor Dule Hill, tweeted prayers to the actress while recalling visiting Newtown for her wedding, von Oy replied to Hill that he was able to experience "Newtown's quaint beauty with me and have memories to draw on beyond this horrible tragedy."
Von Oy visited the hometown earlier this year. She and her husband had their infant daughter Gray christened at St. Rose of Lima in Newtown where the first prayer vigil was held on Friday hours after the mass murders.
