Foundation set up to distribute Newtown donations

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — A nonprofit foundation has been created to oversee the distribution of nearly $10 million donated to support the Newtown community following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation is tasked with evaluating requests and suggestions on how to use the money. More than $9.7 million has been donated so far to the fund established by the United Way of Western Connecticut and Newtown Savings Bank.

The foundation will also help smaller charities that may need administrative assistance.

The foundation's five-person board of directors includes Joseph DiCandido, president of a New Milford aerospace company; Charles Herrick, Danbury Hospital's chair of psychiatry; Newtown attorney Anne Ragusa; former Newtown finance director Benjamin Spragg; and Monsignor Robert Weiss of St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church of Newtown.