Remembering Victims: 1.8.11

Most of us are aware of the horrific incidents in Tucson on January 8. Across the country, many different types of memorials and ways of remembering the victims have been created. In one high school, students decided to put together a campaign much like the Livestrong campaign. The idea? Sell custom wristbands that reminded us of those lost on January 8, 2011. “It started at Ironwood Ridge High School with a simple idea, followed by 800 white bracelets. Now thousands across the country are wearing the white bands that read: “Remember 1.8.11.” On the Monday following the mass shooting in front of a Safeway store in Tucson, the IRHS student government came together for its first period at school. Members agreed they wanted to do something in response to the shootings that killed six and injured another 14; they just didn’t know what. They started brainstorming and throwing ideas across the room. The ideas ranged from T-shirts to fundraising. Then Matt Filbert, 16, the sophomore class president and a wrestler, suggested bracelets. “Once class started, we all kind of started throwing out ideas for things we could do that were simple but would be effective,” Filbert recalled last week. “I just remembered the Livestrong bracelets that Lance Armstrong would sell, the yellow ones. I knew you could customize them, they were pretty cheap, and we could make some money off of them and donate the money to the victims’ fund” (http://explorernews.com/news/oro_valley/article_11bc3eec-2e51-11e0-b97b-001cc4c03286.html). A simple, but effective method for remembering those who suffered.