Thousands raise awareness of gun violence at 29th annual Mother's Day Walk in Boston
Thousands of families from across Massachusetts walked in unity Sunday for the annual Louis D. Brown Peace Institute Mother's Day Walk for Peace to raise awareness about the impact of violence in their communities.
"We all are unified as one. Memorializing, celebrating and uplifting our loved ones," said participant Beverly Parham. "And also wanting to bring peace to our communities because we are so plagued with violence."
Supports those impacted by gun violence
Holding signs and embracing each other, the annual walk through Dorchester aims to raise money to support critical services, advocacy and training for survivors impacted by murder, grief and loss.
Ruth Rollins turned her pain into purpose after her 20-year-old son Danny was killed in 2007 by gun violence. His murder has not yet been solved. Sixteen years ago, she started a nonprofit called We Are Better Together.
"The importance of supporting programs that are working with survivors is tremendously important, there's a lot of women out here I know you're seeing that have turned their pain into purpose," said Rollins.
Several city and state leaders took part in the event showing support for founder Clementina Chery, who started the walk after her son Louis was shot and killed 32 years ago.
29th year of march
"This is God's vision, this is how you will bring my people together to show them my peace, God's peace," said Chery. "And for me, through the midst of our pain, is really shifting that narrative."
This is the 29th year of the march and the theme is "Cultivating Cycles of Peace." Their aim is to get to the root cause of many of these issues.
"We can't stop the bad things from happening, there's enough attention that gets to the bad things," said Chery. "How do we cultivate and continue to promote from the grassroots level."
