• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• New York City, New York
• Marietta, Georgia
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Cromwell, Connecticut
• Charlottesville, Indiana
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Chicago, Illinois
• Temple Terrace, Florida
• Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Seattle, Washington
• Montclair, New Jersey



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• At the invitation of Minnesota Attorney General Skip Humphrey, Secretary of Education Riley will be visiting a school in Minneapolis on the Day of National Concern. He will participate in a panel discussion with high school students on the subject of young people and gun violence. Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, who has played a significant national role by activating her fellow mayors participation, and Attorney General Humphrey, who has also played a national role by alerting his fellow state attorneys general to the Day of National Concern, will be taking part in the panel discussion.

  Date: Oct. 8
  Time: 10:00-ll:00 a.m.
  Place: Richard Green Central Park School, 3416 4th Avenue South
  Contacts: Jack Nelson, Director of Safe Schools, Minneapolis (612-627-2232)
  Leslie Sandberg, Attorney General Humphrey's office (651-296-6196)
  Amy Phenix, Mayor Sayles Belton's office (612-673-2305)

• A great visual: Twin Cities billboards publicizing the October 8 Student Pledge feature former Minnesota Twins superstar, Kirby Puckett, and students wearing Pledge t-shirts. Locations: Chicago Ave and East Lake St.in Minneapolis; Penn Avenue North and Broadway Avenue in Minneapolis; Payne and Busch Avenues in St. Paul; Lexington and University and Avenues in St. Paul; Penn Avenue South and 66th Street in Bloomington.

• Minnesota's statewide initiative has been spearheaded by Minnesota HEALS, a public/private partnership whose mission is to bring together corporate, civic, and state government leaders to address violence in the Twin Cities.

  HEALS contact: Ken Jenson, 612-951-8764

• Materials have been distributed to 1200 schools at all levels: elementary, middle, and high schools. Some schools have been building towards the Day of Concern with on-going class projects such as research into realistic-looking toy guns sold in stores (with letters to stores that stock ones that look too much like the real thing) and poster contests. Other schools have planned special assemblies with guest speakers that include mothers who have lost children to gunfire. A well-known group of wheel-chair performers, "the Gun Runners" (some of whom became paralyzed because of gunshot) will perform in one school.
• On Staten Island, Tina Johnstone, creator of the Silent March and widow of David Johnstone who was shot on a business trip and later died, will be speaking at Curtis High School. A memorial area at the school has been planned to commemorate two students who died recently from gunfire.

  Contact: Edward Seto, in the Principal's office

• District 8 in the Bronx, with its twenty-two elementary and middle schools, has involved its students since the beginning of the year in class projects related to the issues surrounding the Day of National Concern.
• Young people at an after-school youth center, the Science Skill Center in Brooklyn, led by a safety officer volunteering his time, Alan Jackson, will use materials provided by Dr. Enid Margolies, Director of Educational Safety Development and Support for the NYC Public Schools, in their programs.
• Middle Schools in District 28 are planting trees in memory of young people who've died from gunshots.

• Because Georgia Pledge Coordinator, Karon Park, is a middle school teacher, her school in Marietta has taken a leadership role in Day of Concern activities in that community. A student assembly at East Cobb Middle Schools will hear from Superintendent of Cobb County Schools, Dr. Richard Benjamin, and Dr. Steven Thomas from the Emory School of Public Health. They will also hear from Carol Steineger, a local woman accidentally shot by a sixth-grader for whom she was babysitting when she was a teenager.

  The signed pledges will be given to the parents of each student during parent conference week.

  Date: October 8
  Place: East Cobb Middle School
  Contact: Karon Park (770) 509-6023
  

• At Showmaker Middle School on October 8, the Pledge will be recited by students during an assembly beginning at 9:00 a.m. Then student representatives will be called to the stage to sign the pledge. Later, all students will be given copies of the pledge to sign in their classrooms, as will students in all Philadelphia public schools. City Councilmember Michael Nutter and Deputy Mayor of Gun Violence Richard A. Zappile will speak to students at the assembly.

  Time: 9:00
  Place: Shoemaker Middle School, 53rd Street and Media Avenue
  Contact: Paul Hanson, Office of communications, Philadelphia Schools (215) 299-7850.
  

• Assemblies held two grades at a time at Cromwell Middle School. Classes have been leading up to the observance all week. Possible participants in the assemblies: Cadets from the Police Academy, an FBI agent, a State Police Officer. Channel 8's Brian Burwell will serve as a moderator for the assemblies.

  Time: 1:15-2::30.
  Place: Cromwell Middle School
  Mann Memorial Drive
  Cromwell, CT
  Contact: Peter Francis, Vice Principal 632-4853
  

• Student Council members at Eastern Hancock High School in Charlottesville, Indiana are helping observe the Day of National Concern about Young People and Gun Violence in a couple of ways. Thursday morning, student council members will be passing the gun pledges around to all high school students. Each student will be given two copies, one to sign and turn back in for our tally and the other to sign and give to the most trusted adult in their lives, someone to hold them accountable for their pledge. Also on Thursday, the high school student council members will be going to the elementary school to talk about the gun pledge. They will be reading Sherri Chessen's The Gorp's Gift to the younger elementary children and Marybeth Lorbiecki's Just One Flick of a Finger to the older elementary children. The elementary children will then be asked to sign a different version of the gun pledge.

  Contact information:
  Teresa Bever, Eastern Hancock High School
  Charlottesville, Indiana
  (317) 467-0095 or (317) 326-2267.
  Evening: (317) 462-3332.
  

• The Mayor of Nashville, Phil Bredesen, will hold a press conference at West End Middle School in connection with Nashville schools city-wide participation

  Date: Oct. 8
  Time: 12:30 p.m.
  Place: West End Middle School, 3529 West End Avenue, Nashville
  Contact: Cynthia Morin (615) 352-0322
  

• Rock Music Station B-96 will be broadcasting a one-hour commercial-free call-in show with Illinois Attorney General, Jim Ryan; Mayor Richard Daley; US Senators Carol Mosely-Braun and Richard Durbin; Chicago Police Superintendent Terry Hillard; Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas; and young people participating as guests. Mayor Daley will call in and lead all Chicago students within the sound of his voice in reciting the Pledge. Paper copies of the Pledge will have been distributed earlier in Chicago's schools.

  Date: Oct. 8
  Time: 9-10:00 a.m
  Place: WBBM 96 ("B96"), 630 North McClurg Ct., Chicago IL 60611
  Producer: Todd Cavanaugh (312-951-3307)
  Chicago contact: Commander Roberta Bartik, or Investigator Connie Perusich: (312) 747-5595.
  

• A parade with pledges, posters/banners, etc. The Mayor will be there, and students will march around the track with Police helicopters, boats, motorcycles, and dignitaries in the center field.

  Date: Oct. 8
  Time: 9:00 a.m.
  Place: Greco Middle School, 6925 East Fowler Ave., Temple Terrace, FL
  Contact: Officer Carl Avari-Cooper, School Safety Officer
  Ph: (813) 987-6926
  

• At Pine Creek High School, the Mayor of Colorado Springs will lead students in reciting the Pledge on Oct. 8. Survivors of gun violence will relate their stories. Also appearing, Denver Bronco players and Olympic athletes.

  Date: Oct. 8
  Time: 10:30-ll:30
  Place: Pine Creek High School, 10750 Thunder Mountain Ave., Colorado Springs.
  

• Great visual: Brand new white cement trucks carrying the Pledge on their rotating barrels. These new trucks were inaugurated two weeks ago and have been circulating throughout Colorado Springs to publicize the Pledge and Day of Concern.

  Contact: Colorado State Coordinator, Don Davidson, a high school teacher whose best friend, another teacher, was shot and killed.
  Ph: (719) 593-7995 (h); (719) 598-8127 (w)

• 700 students will participate in a rally in the park and then march one half mile to Sam Smith Park where they will recite the Pledge with the King County Sheriff and selected youth leaders.

  Date: Oct. 8
  Time: 10:00 a.m.
  Place: The March for Peace will begin at Martin Luther King Memorial Park (located at corner of Martin Luther King Way and South Walker), Seattle.
  Contact: Mike Seely, MAVIA, Seattle WA 206-323-2303
  

A kick-off event that happened on Monday, October 5:

• In an outdoor ceremony begun with the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of God Bless America, eleven-year-old Jana Lee introduced NJ Sen. Frank Lautenberg and ten-year-old Owen Caplin introduced Congressman Pascrell, who spoke in honor of the occasion. Dan Gross of PAX presented a plaque to the school. Dan's brother, Matthew, who was shot and severely injured in the shooting that took place a year and a half ago on the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building, was also present. A tree was planted as a sign of commitment by the students.

  Contact: Dan Gross (212) 812-2434.
  

For more information on the Day of Concern, contact

Mary Lewis Grow, National Coordinator
Ph: (507) 645-5378
Fax: (507) 663-1207

E-mail: [an error occurred while processing this directive]