"I'll see you in my dreams..." - Keeping a father's promise
September 20, 2026
Start With Hello Week 2026 will begin tomorrow (Monday, September 21) in schools across the U.S. It is one of the key programs of Sandy Hook Promise, the anti-gun-violence organization co-founded by musician Mark Barden, whose seven-year-old son Daniel was among the twenty first-graders killed, along with six adult staff members, at the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass school-shooting in Newtown, CT.
Click here to watch on YouTube (free of charge) Rick Korn's 2023 documentary film A Father's Promise. (Since the film's content is age-restricted, we are unable to embed the film here. The YouTube link only works when watching directly on YouTube.) Korn chronicles in detail the personal and political struggles that Mark Barden, his family, his community, and his country underwent in the wake of Daniel having been murdered. Sheryl Crow is an executive producer of A Father's Promise, and is among the many musicians featured in and interviewed for it, including Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and Bernie Williams.
The film's story is also effectively and movingly framed around musical sequences filmed at various Sandy Hook Promise awareness/benefit concerts. The penultimate musical sequence (beginning at the 1:23:31 mark) is Barden's emotion-filled performance of Bruce Springsteen's "I'll See You In My Dreams," supported by some of his fellow members of The Promise Band, led by Jimmy Vivino, with John Conte (now in Little Steven's The Disciples of Soul,) Eric Finland, Rich Pagano, and Freddie Ravel.
Rick Korn also informed us recently that he professionally filmed Mark Barden's performance of "I'll See You In My Dreams" at last year's special Stone Pony benefit concert celebrating WhyHunger's 50th anniversary. Barden performed the song with Jimmy Vivino and Little Steven's Disciples of Soul at the event, which coincidentally was held on the thirteenth anniversary of the day that Daniel Barden and twenty-five others were shot and killed.
Bruce Springsteen was among the artists who performed at the Pony in support of WhyHunger on that special night. "Bruce came to the side of the stage and watched Mark do the song," Korn told us. "That was the first time he saw Mark [perform the song live,]" said Korn, adding that after the performance was over, Springsteen "came over to Mark and gave him a kiss. Vivino said about the kiss, 'You are now a made man.'"
