Swedesboro Mayor and Council encourage everyone to wear orange in recognition of National Gun Violence Awareness Day, June 7th (the first Friday in June). A proclamation below outlines the gun violence crisis in the nation as well as the Wear Orange movement which is in its 5th year coordinating National Gun Awareness Day.

More from the Wear Orange Organization:

Orange is the color that Hadiya Pendleton’s friends wore in her honor when she was shot and killed in Chicago at the age of 15 — just one week after performing at President Obama’s 2nd inaugural parade in 2013. After her death, they asked us to stand up, speak out, and Wear Orange to raise awareness about gun violence.

Since then orange has been the defining color of the gun violence prevention movement. New York gun violence prevention advocate Erica Ford spearheaded orange as the color of peace through her work with her organization, Life Camp, Inc. Whether it’s worn by students in Montana, activists in New York, or Hadiya’s loved ones in Chicago, the color orange honors the more than 100 lives cut short and the hundreds more wounded by gun violence everyday.

Our movement gains momentum when gun sense activists come together to fight for a future free from gun violence. Wear Orange Weekend is an opportunity for us to show the country just how powerful we are.

National Gun Violence Awareness Day is the first Friday in June, which will be June 7th in 2019.

Together, with hundreds of thousands of Americans, we turned America orange. But the work doesn’t end there. Everytown (everytownresearch.org) and our partner organizations continue to do life-saving work so that we can get closer to realizing a future free from gun violence. We wear orange to be seen, and demand that we be heard. Support us by going orange.