UPDATE: The tour’s San Diego kickoff with SD4GVP was a well-attended, powerful experience. Your generous donations will help Lonnie and Sandy Phillips on their 2022 tour as they connect survivors of gun violence all across the nation.
See Fox 5 News Coverage of the Event »
How can you heal when you’ve been wounded in a shooting? Or when you’ve lost a parent, grandparent, sibling or friend to gun violence?
Survivors suffer trauma that never goes away. But when they meet and hear stories from other survivors and share their own story, they begin to heal.
What is Survivors Empowered?
Sandy and Lonnie Phillips founded Survivors Empowered to honor their daughter Jessi, who was murdered in the Aurora movie theater shooting ten years ago. They call Survivors Empowered “your soft place to land after your life has been forever changed by gun violence.”
The organization provides a Rapid Response Team, a national directory of recommended trauma therapists, free classes in areas like mindfulness, and additional support and education. Survivors Empowered is easily available by phone, text and email.
Coming to San Diego . . .
With miles to go, Sandy and Lonnie are kicking off their 2022 Honor with Action Tour with a fundraising event in the San Diego area on February 19. The 10,000-mile tour observes the ten years since their daughter was killed and it targets the scourge of gun violence that kills another 40,000 Americans each year.
In this midterm election year of 2022 Sandy and Lonnie will visit 20 cities and 22 states. At every stop, they will work to empower survivors, educate lawmakers, enlist people to get involved and build coalitions of gun-violence prevention groups across states.
. . . and You’re Invited
San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention (SD4GVP) and Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of San Dieguito (UUFSD) invite you to attend a special benefit for Survivors Empowered. Sandy and Lonnie will be keynote speakers.
- Wine, appetizer bites and soft drinks will be served.
- Masks and proof of COVID-19 vaccinations will be required for this event.
- Wear warm clothes. If it rains, the event will be indoors with all doors open.
How to Donate to the 2022 Honor with Action Tour
We ask for your tax-deductible donations to Survivors Empowered. Every donation helps Sandy and Lonnie in their work on the 2022 Honor with Action tour.
With miles to go, here are suggested donations for this year-long trip:
- 10 miles $25.00
- 25 miles $50.00
- 50 miles $75.00
- 100 miles $100.00
- 500 miles $500.00
- Or any amount you choose!
Please apply your donation to the “Honor with Action 2022 Tour – San Diego Launch.”
Donate now! And thank you for your support!
The fundraising event will include a drawing of gifts for donors.
A message from Sandy and Lonnie Phillips
“We named our upcoming tour Honor with Action, a phrase borrowed from and supported by our good friends at Newtown Action Alliance. As we crisscross the country, we will be bringing information and fostering fellowship between diverse groups. Those groups will coalesce into a unified coalition of voices that will carry our message loud and clear: Honor our dead and our wounded survivors of gun violence with a united voice calling for action locally and nationally.”
Honor with Action
At every stop in this 2022 yearlong national tour Sandy and Lonnie will:
- Empower Survivors to share their stories with one another and the community to heal together and to increase knowledge of the devastating effects on every survivor after losing a family member, friend, co-worker or classmate to gun violence.
- Expand Gun Violence Prevention (GVP) by inviting and meeting with local lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, professors and other community representatives who, by their on-the-job experience know about gun violence and are able to actively pursue action in the community to prevent gun violence.
- Educate Leaders by speaking directly to governors, mayors and legislators about gun violence, their local issues and laws, and the importance of their action to stop gun violence in their community and state.
- Inform and Invite Media Representatives to interview Sandy and Lonnie, write about their local activities at the stop and help the media get the story out.
And…do whatever it takes to expand active participation for GVP during 2022, this important midterm election year.