PITTSBURGH — Students at Pittsburgh Greenfield school came together Friday to remember the 11 lives lost in the Tree of Life synagogue shooting.
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Sunday marks one year since the tragedy, and in the time since, the school has dedicated benches to each victim. Those benches were lined up on a field during Friday’s commemoration ceremony and a lantern was placed at each one.
Family members of some of the victims attended the ceremony, during which the name of each victim was read as a bell was rung.
“The real thing that keeps me remembering them is that, as a community, it was a tragedy that happened to all of us,” Ari Case, a seventh-grade student, said.
Standing together against hate, the students sang “Be The Light” and showed how light can shine through darkness and tragedy.
“Kindness needs to be contagious,” Pat Gallagher, a teacher at Pittsburgh Greenfield, said. “We’re teaching kids now, as kindergarteners all the way up to eighth grade here at Greenfield School … hopefully teaching them how to do this now and send them this message through something bad that happened. Hopefully, it will change the world.”
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