May this season of warmth and family, gifts and light, be one in which all people are safe, happy, free from violence and loved.
Joyous Kwanzaa!
Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah!
As congregations of diverse faith traditions, we are called by our shared belief in the sacredness of human life to protect and preserve it.
Molly Siegel is Appointed the New
Director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment recently announced that Molly Siegel, MS, has been appointed the new director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. She replaces former OGVP Director Jonathan McMillan who spoke at CFCU's fall meeting in 2023 before resigning in February 2024. Along with other gun safety advocates, CFCU helped pass legislation creating the Office of Gun Violence Prevention in 2021. CFCU congratulates Ms. Siegel on her appointment and looks forward to working with her!
Molly has extensive experience in public health management. Since 2020 she served as an associate director of United Us, leading multi-state public health initiatives focused on program implementation, compliance, and stakeholder engagement.
A graduate of the London School of Economics with a master’s degree in International Health Policy, Molly’s career includes leadership roles at Rocky Mountain Health Plans, the University of Illinois and Hospital Chicago, and the American Medical Association.
The Office of Gun Violence Prevention is an office of the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment. It conducts public awareness campaigns to educate the public about gun violence issues. One recent campaign isLet's Talk Guns Colorado.
It also administers grants based on available money and maintains a resource bank including data collected in regard to firearms in Colorado.
A Poem as we Grieve the 491 Mass Shootings
in the United States in 2024
There has been another mass school shooting, this time at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, killing three and injuring six people. A fifteen year old girl killed two others and herself and injured six. She also left over 200 students and their families traumatized and vulnerable. That was Monday, December 16.
Since then, two more mass shootings have happened, one in Salt Lake City and one outside of Baltimore. Add those to the 488 other mass shootings that have occurred in the United States during 2024 and we have 491. (Mass shootings are defined as an incident with a firearm in which 4 or more persons have been shot.)
We must also remember the nearly 26,000 people each year who die through a firearm suicide.
During this holiday season, please take time to grieve with and for those who have had loved ones taken by gun violence this past year. We offer this poem in support, written by poet Amanda Gorman. Ms. Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in US history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" at President Biden's inauguration.
Hymn for the Hurting
by Amanda Gorman
Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be.
Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. Thus while hate cannot be terminated, It can be transformed Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give: May we not just ache, but act; May our signed right to bear arms Never blind our sight from shared harm; May we choose our children over chaos. May another innocent never be lost.
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On the Colorado Gives Day page, you will find us listed under "Colorado Nonprofit Development Center," we are one of their many projects. We will NOT automatically come up in the search.
On the Colorado Gives Day page, you will find us listed under "Colorado Nonprofit Development Center," we are one of their many projects. We will NOT automatically come up in the search.
