Second Annual ‘Wear Orange’ Jersey Shore Bridge Walk Scheduled to End Gun Violence

OCEAN CITY – The Atlantic-Cape May group Moms Demand Action For Gun Sense in America has scheduled a free walk across Ocean City Ninth Street Bridge (Howard S. Stainton Memorial Causeway) June 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m. as the local part in National Gun Violence Awareness Weekend June 7-9. 
According to a release, the event is open to the public.
The bridge will be lit in orange for the entire weekend. Walkers are encouraged to wear orange clothing for the event.
The walk will start in Somers Point and proceed to the Ocean City Welcome Center (mid-span) of the bridge. Walkers will then return to the starting point.
The event is one of the largest in New Jersey as part of National Wear Orange for Gun Safety Weekend and National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
During # WearOrange, people nationwide who believe citizens can and must solve the problem of gun violence in America, will take action and stand together in a bold statement of resilience and fortitude as we advance our efforts.
The bridge will be lit in orange for the entire weekend and provides an opportunity to raise awareness about gun violence in America. The bridge was chosen as the annual event site as it connects Atlantic and Cape May counties.
Walkers include survivors of gun violence, activists, and members of Moms Demand Action local groups.
Several local survivors and community leaders may be saying a few words before the walk.
The color orange has a long and proud history in the gun safety movement. Orange is the color that Hadiya Pendleton’s friends wore in her honor after she was shot and killed in Chicago at the age of 15, just one week after performing at President Obama’s second inaugural parade in 2013.
Whether it’s worn by hunters, activists, or Pendleton’s loved ones in Chicago, orange honors the 100 lives cut short and hundreds more wounded by gun violence every day.
Since the first National Gun Violence Awareness Day in 2015, hundreds of communities and organizations continue to commemorate that event by wearing orange, holding community events, lighting skylines orange, and issuing city and state proclamations.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans gather nationwide to #WearOrange and call for an end to gun violence.
The Jersey Shore event was started in 2018 after a Moms Demand Action local group was formed in Atlantic and Cape May counties in January of that year.
The bridge walk drew more than 100 walkers in its first year and is expected to attract more than double that participation.
The national organization of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America was founded by stay-at-home mom Shannon Watts in 2012 after the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn.
This non-partisan organization has grown into a formidable national grassroots movement patterned after MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The Atlantic –Cape May local group was started by Christine Piper in January 2018 a few months after the Las Vegas shooting. 
The group quickly grew with the subsequent Marjory Stoneman Douglass school shootings in February 2018. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America-Atlantic/Cape May meets monthly every second Wednesday at the Ocean City Library.
New members are encouraged to join: https://every.tw/2fd7QCe