Scarlett Lewis, founder of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, will be speaking and spreading the word about how to choose love at John Winthrop Middle School on Monday, Feb. 25, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The program is being brought to the public by Tri-Town Youth Services and the Chester, Deep River, Essex, and Region 4 Schools.

“We are so excited and honored to have Scarlett Lewis come for this talk,” said Allison Abramson, executive director of Tri-Town Youth Services. “I have been to see Scarlett speak before and she is very inspiring.”

Lewis is the mother of Jesse Lewis, who was killed in his 1st-grade classroom during the Dec. 14, 2012 tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School along with 19 classmates and 6 teachers and administrators. Lewis founded of The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation in honor of her son Jesse and to spread a message he left on their kitchen chalkboard shortly before he died, “Nurturing Healing Love.”

Not only did this message guide Scarlett Lewis’s personal journey through grief, which she chronicles in her book by the same name, but it became the founding principles for a social emotional learning program that has been adopted in classrooms in the U.S. and abroad. Lewis is the recipient of the International Forgiveness Award, the Live Your Legacy Award, and the Common Ground Award for her advocacy work for peace and forgiveness.

The mission of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement is to ensure that every child has access to social and emotional learning in the classroom to help facilitate the teaching within the families, schools, and communities.

Noting that February is “choose love social and emotional learning month,” Abramson said the major theme of the evening will be that “we can’t always choose what happens to us, but we can always choose how we respond.”

“It is a message of strength for people of all ages, from someone who has taken a horrendous tragedy and turned it into an inspiring message of the depths of forgiveness,” Abramson said.

“This evening’s talk will show us how the smaller injustices in our own lives are manageable and give us the tools we need to tackle those hard times and stresses,” she added. “I think it is going to be a terrific night and I encourage everyone in the community to come and listen to Scarlett and her message of love and forgiveness. I think it will unite us more as a community and let us know we are all in this together and there are ways we can all practice gratitude, courage, forgiveness, and compassion in action.”

This year, Deep River Elementary School launched the Choose Love school-based social emotional learning curriculum and Chester Elementary School will be implementing the program next year. Through this school-based curriculum, children are learning that courage, gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion in action comprise choosing love and they are applying these principles to their daily lives and interactions with peers, teachers, and family members.

The evening event is open to the entire community, including young people aged 12 and older.

“Scarlett will be talking about what happen to her son, so we want to be mindful of the content and shelter children under 12 from being part of the event,” explained Abramson.

For more information, visit www.tritownys.org.