SPRINGFIELD, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A grim display in Delaware County is a potent reminder of the many victims of gun violence.
Dwayne Brico, Fanta Bility, Sinsir Parker — these are just a few of the names printed on the 160 shirts stretched along the lawn of Tree of Life Church on the Baltimore Pike in Delaware County. Each name in the multicolored memorial represents a life lost as a result of gun violence in the county over the last three years.
Courtenay Willcox, the transitional pastor at Tree of Life, explains the purpose succinctly: “To stand with those individuals whose lives have been taken, but also with their family and community, to show them that they’re not forgotten. Their lives meant something.”
That’s why, on each shirt, they have written the names, ages, birth dates and death dates of each of those 160 people.
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“These individuals who were murdered were someone’s child, someone’s father, someone’s mother, somebody’s brother, somebody’s sister … somebody’s beloved,” Willcox said.
Tree of Life member Carolyn Jeffrey, who helped spearhead the initiative, echoes that sentiment.
“I hope people who ride by will look at not only the life lost but the family,” Jeffrey said.
Willcox says the memorial is also one of the ways the church community is reaching out to lawmakers to push through stronger legislation enforcing straw purchase laws — something she calls common sense.
“We, as a faith community, are standing up against the scourge of gun violence, the pandemic of gun violence,” she said.
The memorial will remain on display until Nov. 5.