UVALDE, Texas — A San Antonio woman is joining other groups to keep the memory of the Robb Elementary victims alive.
After tributes to a large memorial in Uvalde’s downtown plaza were taken away, the group We Are Your Voice teamed up with other grassroots organizations to display photos of the shooting victims on trees.
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing…I can make a sign to make sure they’re not swept under the rug,” Hope Sanchez, leader of the group We Are Your Voice says she posted the photos on July 16.
Sanchez says she wanted to post the photos for city and county leaders working in the adjacent courthouse “to be reminded every day” that change must be done after the shooting on May 24.
People traveled from around the country to pay their respects to the victims, both at the Robb Elementary School campus and the plaza downtown.
Sanchez says she would commute from San Antonio and began connecting with the victim’s families and groups like Fierce Madres from Uvalde, who have demanded change from local officials.
On July 8, the city of Uvalde sent a statement saying the accumulated items at the memorials “were largely weather-beaten and ragged.” The statement goes on to say city staff gave the victim’s families a chance to claim whatever items they want to keep before the city put the remaining items in storage “for some indefinite period of time.”
“There will likely be discussions about permanent memorials at some later date. It may be that some of the materials from the impromptu memorials will be incorporated into the permanent memorials, but we are not far along yet in that process,” the statement from Uvalde City manager Vince DiPiazza said.
According to the city manager, new pop-up memorials will be allowed to remain indefinitely on city property.
Sanchez is hoping the temporary tributes can lead to permanent change.
“We are all humans and we all have to come together and decide what changes we’re going to make,” Sanchez said.