'Wear Orange Newburyport' to show support for ending gun violence June 3-5

Jim Sullivan, The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.
·2 min read

Jun. 2—NEWBURYPORT — The city's first lady is asking residents and visitors alike to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day on Friday, June 3, by wearing something orange, and she has plenty of local businesses joining the call.

National Gun Violence Awareness Day kicks off Wear Orange Weekend, when people are asked to wear an orange item of clothing to demand a future free from gun violence. Orange is the color that hunters and other people working in the woods wear to protect themselves and others, as website wearorange.org notes about the weekend's initiative.

Jessie Reardon is the wife of Mayor Sean Reardon. The mayor is scheduled to read a proclamation in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day on the steps of City Hall on Friday at 11:30 a.m.

Reardon is a mother of three children and said the mayor had been planning the city's Wear Orange Weekend of June 3-5 initiative for months.

But the mission of ending gun violence took on greater urgency when Salvador Rolando Ramos shot and killed 19 students and two teachers, while wounding at least 17 others, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. The week before, on May 14, 10 Black people were killed in a racially fueled shooting spree outside and inside a Buffalo, New York, supermarket.

Jessie Reardon spent the past week working with Sailormade owner Bridget Harriss-Gordon, who donated thousands of orange rope bracelets that will be available, free of charge, at about 35 local businesses, including The Black Dog General Store, Kaya Jewelers, Sage, The Candy Man, Salt & Grove Shop, The Angry Donut and Cafe, Native Sun, Life is Good and Ganesh Imports.

"I'd say that about 99.9% of the businesses we approached said they would do it," Reardon said.

Jessie Reardon said she would like to see people wearing their orange bracelets for as long as they would like beyond the upcoming week.

To see the Wear Orange website, go to wearorange.org.

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.

Staff writer Jim Sullivan covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News. He can be reached via email at jsullivan@newburyportnews.com or by phone at 978-961-3145. Follow him on Twitter @ndnsully.