By the first week of February each year, the U.S. has already lost as many lives to gun violence as most other nations will lose in the entire year.
That’s not much to be proud of.
But it is a lot of lives to honor. Here are a couple of ways to honor them.
Everytown’s “Moments That Survive”
As I posted last time, gun violence survivors are everywhere. So ubiquitous, in fact, that Everytown for Gun Safety honors survivors during the first week of February. This year, Saturday, February 1 through Saturday, February 8 will mark the second National Gun Violence Survivors Week.
The focus of the week is on sharing survivors’ stories and encouraging allies to amplify their voices. The centerpiece of the campaign is “Moments That Survive,” a site for digital storytelling about the changes survivors undergo having endured gun violence.
Everytown has prepared a “Moments That Survive” toolkit for college students and educators, with guidance on how to mark National Gun Violence Survivors Week on campus. Their hope is that “hearing someone else’s story may help more Americans recognize their own personal connection and the power of their voice.”
SD4GVP honors Survivors Week
For our February 1 meeting here in San Diego, we’re honoring National Gun Violence Survivors Week by hosting a Soul Box-making event.
The Soul Box Project raises awareness of the cost of gun violence. Its goals are to collect a hand-folded paper Soul Box for every person shot in the U.S. between 2014 and 2018, and to create large-scale displays of tens of thousands of Soul Boxes. At our meeting, we’ll prepare blank Soul Boxes for the gun violence survivor gathering on February 8.
Click on the links below to contact me via email if you’d like to attend:
Kasey Zahner, La Mesa
photo credit: The Soul Box Project