Newsletter - September 30, 1999

Hello,

Things here are really moving, so we thought it was about time for another update.

Lots of good news to share:

Senate Resolution #158 passed unanimously the week-before-last. Our thanks to everyone who wrote to their senators in the past few weeks.

Numerous communities across the nation have been letting us know about their preparations for the Student Pledge Against Gun Violence and the Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence on October 21. More and more community-wide events are being planned to support the school initiatives. Many communities are also planning kick-off events for the week before.

In Northfield, Minnesota, for example, a candle-light vigil will be held in the town square on the night of October 14. Candles will be lit for each of the students who has died in recent school shootings and, as the police chief reads their names, the candles will be blown out one by one. The local children's chorus will sing and candles will be distributed to the crowd and lit as a sign of rememberance and hope.

In Washington, D.C., both the women's WNBA and men's NBA teams are helping with Day of Concern and Student Pledge activities. At the Wizards' game on October 15, pledges will be distributed and young people invited to take them back to their schools for October 21.

In New York, the Director of Educational Safety Development and Support for NYC Public Schools, the Student Council leadership, and students have put together a "launch event," featuring a group, the GunRunners -- men in wheelchairs, many of them because of gunshot wounds. Hundreds of NYC students will be there to help publicize the Day of Concern. The District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn has invited a student spokesperson to talk on his radio show and will help publicize the Student Pledge throughout the month of October.

In Minneapolis on October 18, a production of "Gun Play" by Syl Jones, will kick off the week's activities.

Another launch event will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina -- probably on or near October 15. The event is being planned with the help of North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt.

Most of the above events will take place the week before the Day of Concern. In our next newsletter, we will write about different cities' plans for the Day of Concern itself. Please let us know your community's plans. We are hearing about some wonderful things that are in the works in city after city. Give us details so we can share and help generate new ideas.

Also of interest:

Two editions of Scholastic Magazine will feature the Student Pledge, with copies of the Pledge that can be clipped and copied. The latest issue of the National Association of Student Councils' magazine *Leadership* also features a two-page spread about the Student Pledge, along with other suggestions for violence prevention. Please check out these publications!

We have compiled a list of contacts but the list is far from complete and many, many more individuals and organizations are working on this initiative than we even know about. If there is a contact listed for your area, feel free to get in touch and offer your help. If no contact is listed for your area and you would like to volunteer, please let us know. The list of these contacts follows at the end of this email.

**** Please encourage your school system to set up an efficient means of tallying up the total number of pledges signed so that the numbers can be reported back quickly. We want to be able to announce our national totals as close to the Day of Concern as possible. Knowing that their commitments were made in the company of millions of other young people will add tremendous power to the observance for participating students.****

You may notice that we have removed the option of having individual students record their pledges on-line as the resulting traffic was too great. Last year, our entire service provider's system crashed for about six hours due to the tremendous volume of submissions. It will still be possible to record your school's or school system's numbers on-line at www.pledge.org. Or, you can e-mail them to [an error occurred while processing this directive] or fax them to (507) 663-1207. You may also call them in at (507) 645-5378. When you report your school's numbers, please be sure to give us the full address, including city and state, as well as a telephone number and contact name.

Thank you for everything you're doing to make this year's Student Pledge and Day of National Concern a powerful and healing observance.

The National Coordinating Staff:

Mary Lewis Grow
Ben Rasmussen
Susan Sanderson
Zach Pruitt