(NewsNation) — When Sean Peacock’s sister died, he had the idea to memorialize her with a butterfly bench, and built one for his mom.
“That helped her at a time when she buried her child,” Peacock, of Georgia, said. “So it was very personal.”
Years later, he got a message through the Etsy store for his business, Jass Graphix, Inc., from a woman asking if he could make a bench for her child, Makenna. The woman asked if he could customize one of the benches for the loss of a child.
Peacock told NewsNation’s “Morning in America” that “God prompted him” to learn who the child was. When he looked into it, Peacock saw she was one of the 21 victims of the shooting that happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Once he found that out, Peacock decided to make a bench for each of the victims of the massacre. He posted a GoFundMe to raise money for materials and labor that ended up raising more than $23,000.
“We have to let the good flow so the evil can go,” he wrote in the GoFundMe post.
Peacock and his team worked overtime to make 21 custom memorial benches by hand for the 19 students and two teachers who died.
“We worked with the families,” Peacock said. “They provided us with the photo that they wanted. … They provided us with the inscription.”
Then, they took the benches down to Texas, where Peacock personally delivered them to each family.
Peacock said families saw the benches as an act of love from one community to another.
“I have 21 extended families now,” Peacock said.