Around Town

‘Do Good in the World’: New Canaan Man To Run NYC Marathon in Support of Sandy Hook Promise

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At the time he was asked to run last year’s New York City Marathon in support of a cause that’s become very important to him, New Canaan’s Sloan Alexander hadn’t done much running at all since his cross-country days at Guilford High School. 

Alexander was already volunteering for Sandy Hook Promise and otherwise supporting the organization, which seeks to prevent gun violence and honor all gun violence victims through programs and practices that protect children. 

To run the marathon as part of the Sandy Hook Promise team gave Alexander a reason to get back into the sport. “I thought that would be an incredible thing to raise money for them,” he recalled. 

He trained for about six months and completed the 26.2-mile run, raising more than $5,000 as part of the team, which raised more than $120,000 overall. “At the time, I was not that interested in ‘racing’ a marathon versus ‘running’ a marathon,” Alexander said. “I was just really excited about getting off my butt and into running shape again, and to see if I could do it. And then last summer when I did another half-marathon in Ridgefield, that is when it changed for me.”

A professional musician who works in New York City, Alexander said he realized that he could do more than just survive marathon-running, could push himself further in terms of fitness and health and do that while helping organizations that he believes in.

Around Town

Touched by Tragedy, Local Band Creates Music Event Benefitting ‘Sandy Hook Promise’

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New Canaan resident Sloan Alexander will never forget the morning his daughter entered his bedroom a few days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, telling him and his wife, Sara Bakker, that she feared getting shot. “We were both just very taken aback,” he recalled on a recent afternoon. “She knew what was going on and she knew what had happened. That moment has always struck me. I start to tear up when I think about it.”

Since that morning in December 2012, Alexander has seen his children come up through local schools practicing lockdown drills that he never had to, and has searched for ways to support an organization to which he feels profoundly connected, Sandy Hook Promise.