A touching and inspirational Sandy Hook tribute song launched in November 2013, just before the one year anniversary of the tragedy at Newtown. Marissa Angelina Wendt, a 12-year-old singer from Orange County, CA debuted the original song titled "The Sun Shines in Heaven", a tribute song to honor the Sandy Hook victims and their families in Newtown, Connecticut.
Prior to the Sandy Hook incident, Marissa's Dad Jim Wendt had an idea about writing a song to help parents cope with the loss of a child. Before Jim was born, his brother JB died when he was five. Jim experienced his Mom's anguish and depression long after this personal tragedy. With some encouragement from his wife MaryAnne, Jim started writing a song hoping that music could help grieving parents. While on a flight to San Francisco, Jim wrote some lyrics on a napkin: "Rise up from tragedy. Gotta move on. Find your strength to carry on. To honor a soul, seize the day. Cherish the memories, love life today." These words were the catalyst for this song, and ultimately became the chorus.
A social media comment was the motivation that lead to jumpstarting the project. Shortly after the Newtown incident, Jim read a retweet post on twitter that originated from Ann Curry that mentioned the #26Acts movement. The idea was to inspire people to honor the 26 Sandy Hook families by doing 26 random acts of kindness to make this world a better place. He was inspired by that post and decided to tailor his song to pay tribute to the 26 Newtown families. "For me if just one affected parent were to tell me that this song made a difference, I would be so honored", says Jim.
The Wendts plan on donating 100% of song download profits to support the My Sandy Hook Family Foundation, a charity that gives 100% of donations to the 26 Sandy Hook families. The Sun Shines in Heaven is published by Angelina Delmar Publishing and is distributed by CD Baby. The song is available for download on iTunes, Amazon MP3, Google Play, and CD Baby.
Marissa has been singing and acting since she was 4 years old.
She recently recorded her first live studio recording at 17th Street Records of her favorite Corinne Bailey Rae song "Trouble Sleeping" . In 2013 Marissa recorded and released her first single, an original song she co-wrote with her dad called "The Sun Shines in Heaven", a touching inspirational Sandy Hook tribute song.
She started baking in 2011 and launched her own show on YouTube called SugarNomsTV where she shares baking recipes and techniques. Her favorite moments include sharing her goodies with Janelle So on Kababyan Today and dining in Hell's Kitchen and meeting Chef Gordon Ramsay.
She enjoys spending time with her friends and listening to music in her room with her two cats.
Marissa also enjoys shooting outdoors with her Canon 70D and editing video.
Marissa was accepted into the Integrated Arts Conservatory at Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) in 2014 and is currently a 7th grader.
Her resume is available at Marissa-Angelina.com.
Awards: Winner of Chef Zov's Kids Chef Search, 2013
Representation: Stage 9 / DDO Artists Agency (323) 460-6006
