Report on the Grannies for Peace “Racism Breaks Grannies’ Hearts vigil at the Tulip Fest, 5/8/15 from 1 PM to 2 PM, followed by leafleting.

Here’s a brief update about our exciting and very successful Grannies for Peace vigil and leafleting at the Tulip Festival on Saturday, May 8th during the Mother’s Day weekend. The photos are from Mabel Leon and Dinah Farrington.
At the end of the article is a link to a longer and more detailed blog article with 20 of Mabel’s photos and more about the leafleting as well.

End Racism Now, photo by Dinah Farrington.

The vigil and leafleting were received with enthusiasm above and beyond any experience that we’ve ever had at our annual Tulip Festival vigils.  It was exhilarating and extended not only to the hour long silent vigil itself, but to Grannies walking to and from the vigil site before and after the formal vigil began at 1 PM.  If we were wearing our “Racism Breaks Grannies’ Hearts” neck signs young adults came up to us by the tens and asked to take a picture with us.

Black Lives Matter, photo by Dinah Farrington.

While we were standing, many people came up to us and walked along the whole vigil semi-circle shaking hands, high-fiving each of us, and hugging us.  People stopped to thank us constantly.  More young adults (Millennials) and slightly older parents were the most responsive, which gives us great hope for the future.   There were also people of all races, ethnicities and ages who stopped by.  People jumped into the vigil to be photographed and others took selfies in front of us.

The half hour of leafleting was equally exciting.  Here’s Mabel’s description:

The leafleting was an amazing experience-people wanted the flyers and the stickers and wanted their photos taken-it was an exhilarating experience. They expressed gratitude for what we were doing… In fact when we walked back to the car, young people on their stoops thanked us and wanted flyers and stickers. Amazing. One woman stopped us on the street and had her young child give us hugs. I have never had an experience quite like this.

Here’s a link to our very simple but direct leaflet about why we were there at the Tulip Festival: Black Lives Matter leaflet 2015 edited for website.

Here again is the link to our Waging Peace blog article, titled “Making Waves ~~~ Grannies’ anti racism message resonates in the Park”

Spotlight News also reported on this event: WAW in the News