Laurie Levin, the chair of the Highland Park Community Foundation, understands firsthand the continuing necessity to raise money to help those who experienced trauma or worse at the Fourth of July parade shooting more than two years ago.
Marching in the parade when a lone gunman fired 83 rounds in 96 seconds, “killing seven, wounding dozens and causing trauma for countless more,” she said she understood the lingering effects while at Ravinia listening to Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” last month.
“It really freaked me out,” Levin said, referring to the live cannon fire toward the end of the piece. “It’s an example of the impact of the shooting on the community two years later.”
The Highland Park Community Foundation’s Victory Recovery Fund was one of three recipients of money collected at the second-annual Rock the Ride North Shore Sunday in Winnetka, raising awareness and money to defeat gun violence.
Organized by Highland Park resident Pam Faulkner with help from U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, and U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, D. California, Rock the Ride is a bike ride or walk in North Shore communities to send a message about gun violence.
After the Fourth of July parade shooting, Faulkner, who owns Green Bay Cycles in Winnetka, said she kept hearing from friends and customers about their desire to do something about gun violence.
Reaching out to Schneider, a friend and customer, Faulkner said he contacted Thompson who created Rock the Ride in his Napa, California-centered district after a gunman shot and killed three staff members before killing himself at a veterans facility in Yountville, California, in 2018.
With assistance from Thompson and Rock the Ride organizers from California, Faulkner started the event a year ago, drawing approximately 400 riders and walkers. There were 320 registered for Sunday’s 25-mile ride, 12-mile ride, and three-mile walk.
“We want to bring the community together to look for reasons and ways to oppose gun violence,” Faulkner said. “This is about gun violence prevention.”
Routes for both the 25- and 12-mile rides through Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood and Lake Forest had a rest stop by Highland Park’s City Hall, where there is a memorial for the victims of the shooting.
When Thompson and two people accompanying him on the ride got to the rest stop, they immediately asked for the location of the memorial. They went to pay their respects to the victims.
“This is beautifully done,” Thompson, who was making his first visit to Highland Park, said of the memorial. “It’s a place everybody can show respect. We’ve done this for seven years in Napa.”
As Schneider arrived with five other riders, they quickly went to pay their respects, where Schneider placed a stone by the plaque for each of the seven people killed.
“This is the teaching of my faith,” he said of leaving the stones. “These are pictures of seven people who were stolen from us, and will always be a part of our community.”
Raising $5.8 million in the first few months after the shooting, Levin said $580,000 was given to organizations that help people who experienced trauma because of the shooting. The foundation realized it was not enough to deal with what could be a long road to recovery.
During a recent production of “Les Miserables” by the Uptown Music Theater of Highland Park, Levin said the foundation made sure there were social workers present if anyone experienced a traumatic reaction because shots are fired as part of the show.
Familiar with the show she had seen before, Levin said she was ready for the gunfire. She was not prepared at Ravinia.
Thompson, a Vietnam War combat veteran, said while at the memorial, he too still reacts to gunfire when he hears it decades after his wartime experiences.
“Any time I hear an AK-47, I look for cover,” he said.
Along with the Highland Park Community Foundation, Faulkner said the other two donation recipients were the Giffords Law Center, a national organization, and the statewide Moms Demand Action group.
Jessica Dawson of Wilmette is a member of Moms Demand Action. One of the walkers, she said she believes safe storage of guns and ammunition for legal gun owners is a necessity.
“If people store their guns in a locked safe and their ammunition in a separate locked safe, it will lessen gun violence,” Dawson said.
During a series of speeches after the ride and walk, both Schneider and Thomason talked about the challenge of enacting legislation to curb bun violence. Schneider said he was named for great uncle Sam, who was a victim of gun violence 18 years before he was born.
“His murder is still being felt by my family today,” Schneider said.
Talking about the Yountville shooting in his district in 2018, Thompson said the shooter was a war veteran who had been receiving treatment at the Pathway Home. He gave his guns to a relative for safekeeping.
“Then he had a relapse,” Thompson said. “He went to a gun store and bought another one. He killed three women who were on staff there. One was pregnant.”
