Washington D.C. Sports Team Up on National Gun Violence Awareness Day

The Washington Mystics, Capitals, Wizards, Nationals, Commanders, Spirit, and D.C. Shadow today announced an initial donation of more than $85,000 to Everytown for Gun Safety to support Everytown for Gun Safety's
Community Safety Fund
, providing direct investment, peer convenings and capacity building to community-based violence intervention programs. The Mystics have been a proud supporter of Everytown for Gun Safety since 2019 and are founding members of the Everytown Athletic Council. All teams will use their social media networks and outreach to fans to encourage them to learn more and donate to the fund, which can be found here
www.monumentalsports.com/SafeDCNow
.

Gun Violence Awareness Day is also known as
Wear Orange Day
. Wear Orange began on June 2, 2015-what would have been Hadiya Pendleton's 18th birthday. On January 21, 2013, Hadiya Pendleton marched in President Obama's second inaugural parade. One week later, Hadiya was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago. Soon after this tragedy, Hadiya's childhood friends decided to commemorate her life by wearing orange, the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others.