My name is Catherine A. Green and I am the executive director of ARTs East New York, a non-profit organization serving the artistic development and socio-economic issues in our community.

We just held our very first event on Saturday, Dec. 12 and it was a brilliant success, there were dancers, films and poets to enjoy for the local community for free. See the video here. Click here to read more.

By Grant Segall
December 09, 2009, 4:30PM
Ada Marie Hagan
1919-2009

MADISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Ada Hagan’s daughter Susan told Bill Clinton in 2001 that her mother had raised 14 staunch Democrats.

“Mr. President, over your two terms, that translated into 28 votes that my mother was personally responsible for,” said Susan. “I believe she put you over the top in Ohio.” Click here to read more.

What is it that decides our fate? Is it the people we meet? The choices we make? Or is it the things that happen to us, things beyond our control?

For resident Suzanne Verge, a decade of passionate work can be traced back to one person and one defining moment that arrived when she was 15 years old.

That moment came on Dec. 10, 1978, when a typical Sunday morning was interrupted by a knock on the door. It was an officer from the Santa Monica Police Department, who had come to tell Verge’s family that her brother, Peter, had been murdered at the age of 18, fatally shot a mile away from his home.

Click here to read this inspiring story.

Five months after Columbine, Congress still failed to do the right thing by closing the gun show loophole.

It was a time when everyone thought no one was interested in gun violence prevention.   A group of women in Tulsa felt differently and began to organize the Million Mom March – Tulsa for Mother’s Day 2000.   Mary Leigh Blek of the Bell Campaign flew in to Tulsa to address the group.   She inspired them to march on with examples of how she and other activists worked to improve gun laws around the country. Click here to read more.

• share your stories of how gun violence has affected you personally
• express your thoughts or your outrage about gun violence
• what you’re doing in your community to prevent gun violence

Click here to submit your story.

Lisa was the legislative director for the Oregon State PTA. She lived in rural Oregon and was working with state activists to close the gun show loophole in the Oregon State Legislature. When that failed, Lisa – undeterred – looked for other ways to get attention for closing the gun show loophole. She read about the Million Mom March in Anna Quindlen’s column in Newsweek, November 1999. Click here to read more.

From the Million Mom March to City Council to the State Legislature.

My whole life changed the day I saw Donna Dees-Thomases and Hilary Wendel on the Today show talking to Al Roker about moms organizing a march on Washington.  It was the fall of 1999.

On the Today Show they were holding a home made banner with www.millionmommarch.org on it plus their Million Mom March 800 phone number.  I called it. I interviewed and was accepted as the volunteer Columbus, Ohio coordinator. Click here to read more.

Our 20 year old daughter, and only child, Teresa Del Rio, 20, was shot through her car door while driving friends home on June 6, 1999.  She was taken to the hospital and received 14 pints of blood, but she bled to dead on the operating table.  The Shooter, was wanted by the “L.A.’s Most Wanted” in 1998 after shooting to death a 16 year old boy and a 24 year old man.The shooter was not apprended.  His accomplices were sentence to short terms and are now walking the streets.  One accomplice was set free, because Miranda rights were not read. The shooter was said to have be shooting at moving car, being violent, and also has 3 attempted murders. The shooter was apprended in Las Vegas, NV four weeks after Teresa’s murder. No trial has been set. 2009.

As a mother who has lost my son, I feel as though I am broken, and each day of my life feels the same.  From the minute I wake up in the morning until the evening . And, then I dream horrible dreams about my son being shot and killed.  Thank you for allowing me to voice my feelings from my heart and to be included in a cause.  It makes me feel not so alone.

My Kristoffer was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Gun violence has affected our family because on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 6:19 pm my son was was shot through the heart by a friend of his who was playing with a gun. Personally, I don’t think it was an accident. The shooter was already on parole and the other boy was a minor was on probation but they had a gun. How do you accidentally shoot someone in the heart? I, don’t know either. Then they let the minor go home to his parents because they didn’t have a hearing in the allotted time, because they kept cancelling it. The only thing I can hug is the dirt in my son’s plot at the cemetery.