LYNN — A picture can be worth a thousand words.
And thanks to the Lynn YMCA’s Welcome Week, pictures will show that Lynn is a strong community and a welcoming city for all people.
Lynn residents and business owners and employees were encouraged to take part in the YMCA Welcome Week by the Y’s Executive Director of Community Relations, Aubrey Jimenez, by snapping a picture.
“The Lynn YMCA believes that Lynn is stronger when everyone in the community feels welcome,” Jimenez said in a release about the event.
The pictures featured each participant, holding a sign designed by the YMCA which read “Lynn Welcomes You. All Sizes. All Colors. All Genders. All Beliefs. All Religions. All Types. All People. Everyone.”
Welcome Week is a national YMCA event, but this is the first year Lynn has decided to take on the idea, partnering with the Lynn District Court to take and display pictures on Sept. 28.
Jimenez thought it was a perfect time to start this movement on Lynn.
“It feels like the right time to do it. There’s more immigrants and refugees in this country every day and we just want to say to them ‘you’re safe and welcome here,'” she said, while handing out signs last Thursday to kids posing for a Welcome Week picture.
Jimenez hopes that in the future Welcome Week can catch on and become something that every business and more Lynn residents can jump in on.
“Could you imagine walking down Market Street, seeing each business’s window displaying a sign that says ‘Lynn Welcomes You.’ It would be incredible,” she said.
