Trip to Uvalde, TX next week

By Don Rush

The one-year anniversary of the mass shooting in Oxford High School is fast approaching and the healing for students, staff and community continues. The pathway to healing for one former OHS student and 18 current students has meant reaching out to students who this May shared a similar tragic experience.

Current students of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB) and Zoe Touray, 18, who graduated from OHS last year will be in Uvalde, TX on Nov. 18-20 to show support for student survivors of the May 24 Robb Elementary mass shooting, where 19 students and two teachers were murdered and 17 others were wounded.

Since graduating Touray has been involved with the gun violence prevention group, March for Our Lives. She has spoken in Washington, DC, Texas and in Lansing.

“Ever since getting into the gun violence prevention space, I’ve been able to meet many other survivors. It has been a healing experience for me to have conversations and form relationships with people who are free of judgment because of shared experience,” she said. “I wanted the young survivors of Uvalde to have a shared feeling and also a day of fun to remember what it is like to be a normal kid.”

From that she organized a Survivors United Play-day in Uvalde on Nov. 19. “It’s a day of fun for Robb Elementary students that includes Therapy Animals of San Antonio, Wing Stop, and field day like activities. I hope to create a safe space for these younger kids to have fun. To regain that sense of childlike innocence. I hope they also take away long lasting relationships and friendships from the Oxford students that we can all count on.”

According to OHS IB Coordinator Nicki Barnett, 16 of the 18 Senior IB students will fly down to Texas to help Touray during her event and to meet with students, staff, parents and community members from Uvalde. The IB students created a foundation, Oxford Legacy, with a mission to turn their tragedy into a “source for something positive.” Their mission is “to give

love and compassion to other communities in need — continuing on the legacy of ‘Oxford Strong.’”

“The students decided how they wanted their foundation to run,” Barnett said. “It’s led by Lizzie McQueen and Sam Kirchler. Oxford Legacy based on the love and support we in Oxford received after our mass shooting. They wanted hurt and trauma to be replaced with purpose and love. Pain knows pain.”

Barnett said Oxford students are looking to connect with the children of Robb Elementary so they have a connection and understanding with others that have had the same experience. “Much of their ideas centered on what they received after Nov. 30. The Project Linus made every single Oxford High School student a blanket as they picked up their bags a couple of weeks post-shooting. That stuck out to many of the kids so they reached out to JoAnn Fabrics. Within two weeks, we had 11 pallets of high-quality fleece delivered to our school so we could do the same for the Robb Elementary students. We will be handing out hand-made tie blankets, fidgets, and bracelets. We are most looking forward to playing games and connecting with the community,” she said.

Touray said Lizzie McQueen and then Barnett reached out to her because they heard of her event. “The Oxford students had made over 1,000 blankets for Robb students,” she said, “They had been trying to get to Uvalde, but had run into some issues. We had a meeting and found a way to work together to make the event happen, and I’m so thankful to them for all of the help.”

Students also reached out to other businesses to make their trip happen. According to Barnett, besides the JoAnn Fabrics, American Airlines donated all of the “miles” to get the 16 students and six chaperons to and from San Antonio. The Detroit Lions donated financially to the foundation to be used for the Uvalde Therapy Dog initiatives and “Little Caesars loaded up all of our blankets — 65 boxes – yesterday (Nov. 1) and they will deliver them to Uvalde. They will also provide their Love Kitchen at the event for food. The Oxford community also donated money towards travel and the foundation.”

She said the IB program is trying to cover as much of the cost of the trip as possible.

“ We do not want the kids to pay anything over $500, even if it does. Our rough estimate is it will cost about $12,000 for all students and chaperons. We have a GoFundMe open right now and as of today (Nov. 2), it’s at $9,843. We put $15,000 as our goal as we would still like to add items and events to Survivors United Play-day and the Uvalde Foundation. We also still have a big goal of contributing to a therapy dog program there.”

She said students in Oxford have responded well to therapy dogs in their hallways. “They are the one constants that have brightened our days.”

The GoFundMe page is gofund.me/b03b3c2e. Touray also has a donation page set up on Facebook, facebook.com/donate/378383114505438. “I also want to thank the Oxford community for all the love and support it has given me,” she said.

“The kids (and us adults) are hoping to gain healing, purpose, and connections with the Uvalde community,” Barnett said. “We hope to share smiles this month as we inch closer to our dreaded one-year mark. Ultimately, we want to finish something that would make Justin, Tate, Hana, and Madisyn proud. We want to make Oxford proud. We want the world to know what an amazingly supportive little community we have. Love will always win, even when it seems like there is little light in our journey through the darkness. We will never forget the lives taken and ruined on that snowy November day. But we are determined to take our sorrow and use it for good, to use it to help others.”