Local Moms Demand Action to fight gun violence with Wear Orange Experience on Sunday, June 4

New Trier Township’s branch of Moms Demand Action is bringing together anti-gun-violence groups from across Chicagoland on Sunday, June 4, for the first Wear Orange Experience.

The fundraising event goes from 6:30-9:30 p.m. June 4 at the Den Theatre, 1331 Milwaukee Ave., on the North Side of Chicago. It will feature live music, storytelling and other performances to help fight gun violence and support those impacted by it.

Tickets are available online at a suggested donation between $40-$125.

The event also features an online silent auction, which is open now and ends during the event on June 4.

“The gun violence epidemic in America is a crisis that impacts every community,” said Erinn Martin, of the local Moms Demand Action chapter, in a press release. “The issue is bigger than any one organization or community, and so we are bringing together partners throughout the area to learn from one another, to organize for change, to prepare our response to the next tragedy, and to raise awareness and much-needed funding for the groups on the ground working to reduce gun violence across Chicagoland.”

Wear Orange is a program in honor of Chicago teenager Hadiya Pendleton, who was shot to death while playing on a Chicago playground in 2013. Friends of Hadiya began honoring her life by wearing the color hunters do to protect themselves from gunfire: orange.

In past years, Moms Demand Action groups have participated in Wear Orange events in early June, and this is the first year for the Wear Orange Experience by New Trier’s Moms Demand Action.

The event will also feature the Jacqueline von Edelberg’s traveling orange-ribbon art installation, which was on display in Highland Park following the shooting last summer.

Students Demand Action groups from New Trier and Highland Park high schools are among the youth groups participating in the event.

Proceeds from the fundraiser will benefit Chicago-area anti-gun-violence groups: Mothers Against Senseless Killings, Mothers on a Mission 28, Israel’s Gift of Hope, La Villita Community Church and Antmound Foundation, among others.

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