MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood Mayor Vic DeLuca and South Orange Village President Sheena Collum have announced that they will proclaim June 2 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. They urge residents of the two towns to “wear orange” on the June 2 to honor and remember all victims and survivors of gun violence and declare that the country needs to do more to reduce gun violence. DeLuca and Collum will join more than 100 mayors from 31 states who are participating in the second Gun Violence Awareness Day.
“Take a stand against more killings by wearing orange and joining your neighbors at the 7 p.m. June 2 Wear Orange event in Maplewood Memorial Park at the bottom of the hill,” DeLuca said in a press release.
“Let’s get a big crowd to help send a message across this country that we need to deal with gun violence now,” Collum said in the release.
SOMA residents organized the local Wear Orange event, which will include a group photo. More than 150 Wear Orange meetups are set to take place in communities nationwide.
The Wear Orange Campaign, www.wearorange.org, is a coalition of more than 200 organizations, artists and musicians, and elected officials working to reduce gun violence in America. The campaign was inspired in 2013 by a group of Chicago teens to commemorate the life of their murdered friend, Hadiya Pendleton, by wearing orange, the color hunters wear to protect themselves in the woods. Pendleton was shot and killed one week after performing at the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.