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SEA BRIGHT, N.J. — The devastation that Superstorm Sandy had brought to the Jersey Shore was hard enough for the firefighters trying to help towns recover, but it was the Sandy Hook school shootings that brought them to their knees.

But then Bill Lavin, president of the New Jersey State Firefighter’s Mutual Benevolent Association, received a video message from a 9-year-old girl in Mississippi that gave him an idea of how he could help not just his fellow firefighters recover, but the battered communities as well: Build a playground in 26 towns hard-hit by Sandy, to honor those killed in Newtown, Conn., and to give the people in the Sandy-devastated towns hope.

“As I listened to her speak on the video, I thought that’s what we have to do,” Lavin said. “We have to get back to the children and supporting them and playgrounds just seemed like the natural thing to do.”

And so at dawn Friday, work on the first of 26 playgrounds began at what will soon be an oceanfront park in Sea Bright, with 26 New Jersey children standing by to recognize those lost and to represent those who will play there in the future.

Sea Bright’s playground will be in honor of Anne Marie Murphy, the special education teacher who died with her arms wrapped around student Dylan Hockley in an attempt to protect him from the gunfire.

Lavin said the theme of 26 is kept throughout the project, which is called the Sandy Ground Project — Where Angels Play. Each playground will be 2,600 square feet. Organizers will try to use 26 volunteers. Sweatshirts and T-shirts to raise money for the project cost $26.

The Sandy Grounds project will cost about $2.1 million overall, with each playground costing $60,000 to $80,000. The Foundation to Save the Jersey Shore Inc. joined the firefighters union to build Sea Bright’s playground.

Sea Bright Mayor Dina Long said the community was “profoundly grateful” for the donation.

“It’s not just a safe place for children to play,” she said. “It’s a sign of hope and renewal.”

The Sandy Grounds playgrounds will be built by volunteers, mostly firefighters, police officers and teachers, and the equipment was purchased using donations from community groups.

Organizers reached out to Sea Bright school children about a month ago to get their help picking out the playground equipment. And they included children in the ceremony Friday.

As the sun just barely peeked over the horizon, 26 New Jersey children grabbed beach buckets filled with sand and bearing the Newtown victims names and emptied them at the shoreline. The waves would eventually wash the sand away, representing how the project would be carried on to the 25 other towns along New Jersey, New York and Connecticut’s coasts, Lavin said.

Holly Zbierski, the 8-year-old daughter of a firefighter from Bergen County, woke up at 4:30 a.m. so she could come with her father to Friday’s ceremony and carry one of the sand buckets.

“I wanted to help the kids here,” she said. “They survived the storm.”

(CBS News) SEABRIGHT, N.J. – Here is a story of a link between two of the most tragic stories we all watched unfold last year. Some of those who lost so much in superstorm Sandy are honoring the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and doing it in a way they hope eases some small part of all of their pain.

At the crack of dawn Friday, there were fireworks and bagpipes on the beach.

The shore town of Sea Bright, New Jersey celebrated the groundbreaking of a new playground, replacing one destroyed by superstorm Sandy. It’ll be dedicated to a victim of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut.

Firefighter Bill Lavin came up with the idea.

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“I just felt like would it be possible to build 26 parks and honor these children,” he said, “and it kind of fit because we knew there were so many communities along the shore that were in need of support.”

With funds raised privately, and volunteers to build them, each playground will bear the name of a Newtown victim.

“I think it’s a beautiful idea,” said Nicole Hockley, the mother of Dylan Hockley, a 6-year old killed at Sandy Hook Elementary. “A playground brings something positive to a community for children, and that’s got to be one of the best ways to memorialize my child and the other children that died that day.”

Watch an extended interview with Nicole Hockley below:

For her the hardest part is realizing that Dylan is “not just in the next room, that this is permanent, and that’s something I still can’t get my head around.”

In her home, there’s still a picture of Dylan’s class on the refrigerator — and in that picture is a person Dylan adored. It is that of Ann Marie Murphy, Dylan’s favorite teacher. Nicole Hockley acknowledged that the first playground will be named after her.

“Dylan and Ann Marie had a very special bond,” she said. “He truly loved her, and I know that she loved him.”

Children from the community poured buckets of sand and tossed flowers into the ocean to honor Murphy and the others who died.

Paul Gowins considers the playground a gift. “It’s everything to us and this is where we raise our kids,” he said, “and I grew up on the beach, too, and that’s our best memories.”

To Nicole Hockley, the playground represents “not so much what I see but what I hear. I hear laughter because that’s what Dylan would do at a playground, and that’s what I hope these playgrounds do for other children. Make them happy and allow them to laugh.”

Work begins on Dylan’s playground next month.