TOLEDO, Ohio — A group of Toledo mothers just got back from the White House after meeting with the Biden administration to talk about gun violence.
"I mean, we thought we were doing something when we had the march last year," Aviance Hill, with Sisters 4 Unity, said. "Now we're like, 'we're at the White House! They asked those girls to go to the White House!'"
Sisters 4 Unity is a local non-profit run by mothers whose children were killed by gun violence. Now, they support other families who are going through the same. It is an effort that was recognized by the White House this week.
"I'm looking out at all these mothers, and aunts and uncles and grandmothers," Hill said. "I'm looking out over them and I could see not only their pain, their hope and their love, but I could also see their babies, just standing right next to them, like, this is what it's all for."
One of the reasons Sisters 4 Unity caught the eye of the Biden administration is for a clean-up service they offer if a shooting is committed in front of someone's home. That way, the family themselves do not have to deal with cleaning up what is left behind.
"That's trauma on top of trauma," Lashawnda Kinnebrew said. "You know, you have someone that's unalive and you have to go and clean up the blood yourself, that's trauma on top of trauma. And, if they send someone out to clean the blood up, they get a bill."
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz helped pay for the Sisters 4 Unity trip to Washington.
"The fact that the White House extended an invitation to the Sisters 4 Unity to attend Monday's meeting shows that their message of resilience has reached a wide audience," Kapszukiewicz said. "I'm glad they are being recognized for their work, and I believe Toledo can be a national model for how cities can engage with families who have suffered the trauma of gun violence first-hand."
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