Hundreds of people turned out on a picture perfect afternoon this past Saturday for a community block party in southwest Lancaster's Culliton Park.
A collaboration between the SoWe neighborhood group, The Kendall Movement and Paying It Forward, the "Peace in Our Streets" event mixed music, food and games with efforts to raise awareness around gun violence, including an open mic, speeches by community leaders and a "Memorial to the Lost," a T shirt display organized by the group Heeding God's Call to End Gun Violence.
"(I) truly couldn't ask for anything more," organizer Lindsey Martin said afterward. She leads The Kendall Movement, named for her fiancé, Kendall Cook, who was shot and killed in 2021. This is the second annual event she has set up at Culliton; she also organizes an annual Thanksgiving community meal.
"I know that block parties and Thanksgiving meals are not going to stop the gun violence," she said. "But Saturday's event was a beautiful example of how hundreds of our community members from all walks of life came together for something so tragic, turning into something so beautiful and positive."
Photos
(Photos by Brian Nguyen. For more images, visit Brian's Facebook page.)
