There were a lot of umbrellas along with a lot of hope in Dorchester as people readied for Sunday’s Mother’s Day Walk for Peace.
Credit: Michael Naughton/METRO
They walked for Troy Woods and Ronald Dias. They walked for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings and the even younger victims of the Newtown school shooting.
Hundreds of people set off in the rain from a soggy park in Dorchester Sunday morning in honor of the countless victims of violence and to walk to spread a message of peace.
The annual Mother’s Day Walk for Peace, put on by the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, drew hundreds including Norine Woods-Jackson, of Dorchester, who was walking for the 14th year in honor of her murdered son.
“I’m going to walk until my feet bleed because we have to stop this violence. It’s nonsense,” she said. “The bombing itself should have been a wake-up call … but I’m still hopeful peace is possible.”
Before those in the crowd left the park to walk through the city’s streets they heard from Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was one of the 26 students and educators gunned down at the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“Let’s all remember and spread the word that love is a choice and that we make it every day several times a day. We’re all choosing love today and let’s keep doing it,” she told the crowd.
Tina Chery, the founder of the Brown Peace Institute, told the crowd that they raised $98,000 for the organization’s peace efforts.
“This is what Boston has. We are truly one strong and one Boston. We are truly strong,” Chery told the crowd.
Many of those who took part in the walk wore purple in a show of peace while others wore shirts and pins with the pictures of their murdered relatives and friends.
Woods-Jackson said the growing number of people who lend their support and join the walk each year helps her to keep participating.
“It’s not one community, it’s all people from all walks of life. It’s not a color-coded problem, it’s a people problem,” she said.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
