PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A new scoreboard was unveiled at Roxborough High School Friday to celebrate the life of Nicolas Elizalde, a freshman who was fatally shot while leaving a football scrimmage nearly two years ago.
Donated by the high school’s community partner ShopRite of Roxborough, the scoreboard includes one of Elizalde’s favorite sayings: “For the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”
Elizalde’s mom, Meredith, spoke at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
"Nick is gone. He's in paradise and I'm not worried about him. He is doing better than any of us can imagine. The rest of us are left in this misery, and our kids deserve better than we are giving them.”
She says there are people in the state who think handguns should be able to fire at the rate of machine guns, and, to that, she invites them to stand on the field and feel the heaviness she feels without her son.
“Feel the heaviness that I feel without my child, my only child, on Mother’s Day and every day. And the heaviness that all the kids who were just trying to play a game and do the right thing feel, having what they lived and think is sacred destroyed because of bad choices from not only our neighbors but from our leaders in government.”
She says the public and lawmakers need to do better when it comes to guns and gun violence.
Gov. Josh Shapiro agrees. His proposed 2024-2025 budget invests $100 million to reduce gun violence, including a $37.5 million increase for the Violence Intervention and Prevention program through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.