PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
Lynnette Alameddine holding a photo of her and her son, Ross, who was killed in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting.
BY BRIDGET TURCOTTE
SAUGUS — A mother who lost her son in the Virginia Tech shooting is fighting for a day of support for survivors of gun violence.
Lynnette Alameddine of Saugus wants the town to recognize June 2 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
Her son, Ross Alameddine, 20, was one of the victims killed during a mass shooting in 2007 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. During the attack, 32 people were murdered and 17 were critically injured on the school’s campus. Seung-Hui Cho, 23, and a senior at the school, was the shooter who later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Since the loss of her son, Alameddine has joined various organizations, including Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a movement that advocates for stronger gun laws, and Everytown for Gun Safety, the movement to end gun violence.
“I don’t want anyone else to go through what I have gone through, and am still going through,” Alameddine said.
National Gun Violence Awareness Day is held on June 2 to recognize the birthday of Hadiya Pendleton, who was killed days after performing for President Barack Obama. Last year, on what would have been Pendleton’s 18th birthday, her mom and friends wore orange to honor her.
“The color orange is what hunters would wear in the woods to protect themselves,” Alameddine said.
Gun safety organizations followed suit, Alameddine said. Buildings in New York, Washington D.C., and Chicago, Pendleton’s home city, were illuminated with orange.
“More than 200 organizations and influencers asked people nationwide to join them by wearing orange to honor her life, the lives of the more than 90 Americans killed by gun violence and the hundreds more who are injured every day,” Alameddine said.
She noted that nothing in Boston had been lit up orange, and called the Department of Transportation to have the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge added to the list.
This year, the bridge, TD Garden, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, along with a few other buildings in the city’s skyline, will be orange.
“In the nation, we’d like to see buildings in all the cities and towns turned orange,” Alameddine said. “I would like to see all the local towns, if they can, light up something in their town or city orange to support everyone who has lost anyone from gun violence.”
Alameddine hopes residents will feel inspired to wear orange. She will ask the Saugus Board of Selectmen to proclaim the day of recognition at a June 1 meeting, so that it is on the books in following years.
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte
