Scarlett Lewis, mother of Jesse Lewis, says virtues of courage, forgiveness and compassion promoted through her Choose Love nonprofit are how she lives.

(WFSB) - Organizers scheduled a nationwide vigil to mark 12 years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The Newtown Action Alliance, faith groups, and anti-gun violence advocacy groups across the country set the vigil for Thursday morning.

Exactly 12 years ago, on December 14, 2012, the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators were taken at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut: an unimaginable tragedy which left me in grief that will never truly heal.

Faith leaders encouraged the Newtown community to embrace the solidarity of shared experience during a remembrance of those killed in the Sandy Hook shootings.

Today marks 12 years since the deadly mass shooting of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. On December 14th, 2012, a gunman killed 6 adults and 20 students at the school in Newtown. Since the mass shooting Connecticut schools have spent millions of dollars hardening security.

On December 14, 2012, a gunman opened fired inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooting killed 20 first-grade students and six educators.