ORANGE, NJ — Reggie Miller, coordinator of the Rutgers University Male Student Support Program at Orange Preparatory Academy, will host a National Gun Violence Awareness Day rally outside the school on Central Avenue on Friday, June 1, at 2:45 p.m.
Last year, Miller and other Orange Preparatory Academy faculty members joined forces with students to form a human chain around the basketball court, playground and field to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day. This year, he is asking everyone who participates to wear Orange to symbolize “Orange Pride,” as a display of solidarity with the National Gun Violence Awareness Day movement’s mission.
Orange is the official color of the National Gun Violence Awareness Day movement, which began in 2013, when a small group of teens at a South Side Chicago high school asked classmates to honor the life of murdered friend Hadiya Pendleton by wearing the color. Hunters wear orange in the woods to protect themselves, signifying the value of human life.
This inspired the Wear Orange campaign, a broad-based coalition of nonprofit groups, cultural influencers, corporate partners and elected officials working to reduce gun violence in America.
Miller urged all residents interested in wearing orange and supporting National Gun Violence Awareness Day to come out for his rally.
“I feel that, as citizens of Essex County, we have to do more to promote peace and unity in our community, and fight crime and improve public safety and not only rely on police,” said Miller on Tuesday, May 29. “I love my people and refuse to see young brothers kill each other. Come out to show your solidarity with families who have lost a family member to gun violence. Come out to show solidarity with communities across America that are torn apart by bloodshed and fear.”
To mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day in June last year, Miller organized a student rally on the steps of Orange Preparatory Academy, followed by a walk across the street to symbolically encircle the Central Avenue Playground — where several shootings and gun-related incidents have occurred — to create a human chain as a sign of local solidarity with the nationwide protest movement against guns and gun-related violence in the country.
“The young people in Chicago came up with the color and you know I love Orange and, if you cut me, I bleed orange,” said Miller on Friday, June 2, 2017. “I’m from Orange, the national color is orange, we have a gun problem in Orange, so we’ve got to do something.”
To learn more about National Gun Violence Awareness Day or the Wear Orange campaign, visit www.wearorange.org. For more information about Miller’s annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day rally, call 973-675-5617.
About the Author
