Activists seeking an end to gun violence will hold their fourth annual Thanksgiving Community Meal this weekend.
The free event will take place from 12 noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, at Crispus Attucks Community Center, 407 Howard Ave., Lancaster.
As in past years, it will feature a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, plus live entertainment and speakers making the case for community unity in opposition to gun violence. The meal has drawn attendance in the hundreds in previous years.
New this year is a demonstration by Raw Tools, an organization that follows the Biblical injunction to “beat swords into plowshares” by transforming guns into garden tools; and a performance by the Bumbada Women Drummers troupe.
Jimmy “KJ” Rodriguez will serve as DJ. Returning features include a performance by students in SWAN, Scaling Walls a Note at a Time, a nonprofit that provides music lessons to children of incarcerated parents; and an installation by Memorial to the Lost, which displays T shirts labeled with the names and dates of death of individuals killed by guns as a way of drawing attention to the toll.
The event is put on by The Endall Movement, founded by Lindsey Martin in honor of her fiancé, Kendall Cook, a gun violence victim; and Life After Loss.
“This event transcends the ordinary by combining a Thanksgiving meal with a powerful message of hope and unity,” organizers said in a statement. “… Let’s turn pain into purpose and despair into hope.”
