You’re never too young. . . .

Or Hadash synagogue in Fort Washington, PA, held its annual MLK Day of Service and invited Souls Shot Portrait Project to participate. As I sat at a table full of our catalogs and flyers and a large poster explaining the project, I noticed the children in the room were mostly interested in the box of candy I had provided to encourage people to visit our table. Two young boys came by and grabbed a handful which was quickly but gently snatched away from them by mom. She asked them to read the poster and then together they chose a page in one of the catalogs to read aloud. They talked a little bit about why the project exists, what happened to the people in the portraits, and why they should care. Then she let them have the candy.

We are grateful for parents like her who take the time to introduce the terrible cost of gun violence to impressionable young people in this caring and sensitive way. As we often say, our approach is invitational, not confrontational. We don’t use gory images or shocking stories of death, only the images and stories that celebrate the joyful moments these souls experienced and the senselessness of the lost lives because of a momentary bad decision made by someone with a gun.

Laura Madeleine