‘Walk for Nonviolence’ seeks to unite, heal - MassLive.com

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SPRINGFIELD — Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence will hold its “Walk for Nonviolence” Sunday, June 27, at 2:30 p.m. from Wesley United Methodist Church at 741 State St.

It’s the seventh year for the event and the Rev. Lauren Holm, the pastor of Bethesda Lutheran Church and East Church Congregational who has headed the local campaign that addresses a range of issues for six years, is the first to acknowledge a “one-day walk by itself doesn’t do anything” in terms of reducing violence.

What it does, she says, is connect people in hopes of finding ways to address this issue in their lives and its causes.

“One of the things we hear all of the time from people close to the problem, especially young men of color in the various neighborhoods of Springfield, is that they have no hope and no sense of the future,” said Holm who feels systemic racism continues to create inequality. “This is the reason we have to keep walking and praying, but we need to do a lot more between those walks to try to address the root causes of violence in our society.”

She said participants in the walk carry posters, each with the name of an individual who died by gun violence in the city. The names include those of Michael Schiavina, Alain Beauregard and Kevin Ambrose, the three most recent Springfield police officers to be fatally shot while on duty.

“Black lives, blue lives, all lives matter,” Holm said. “It does take everyone being involved and seeing the causes of violence and everyone working together to make Springfield a peaceful place to live where every person can thrive.”

Her words are echoed by Rev. Catharine A. Cummings, Wesley United Methodist Church pastor who will lead the 45-minute walk from Mason Square down State and onto adjacent streets in Old Hill in hopes of bringing healing.

“We oftentimes pick a place where there has been violent death and trauma and we pray for healing for those who have been affected by that trauma whether they are the aggressor or the one who has lost their life and for the families affected by it,” said Cummings who has been a walk participant since the beginning. “It literally is reclaiming sacred space for life to spring back into the community.”

She said the prayers include for “our schools right here in the neighborhood to be a blessing to our children and for the families who are part of the community.”

Cummings said the walk, which sometimes draws city officials as well as law enforcement involved with C3 policing efforts aimed at making neighborhoods safer, tends to grow “as we go along which is really nice.”

“When we walk past all of the homes, people wave, honk horns,” Cumming said. “They are participating even with their clap, their high five, their affirmation.”

She called this a “witness to the vibrancy of our faith communities regardless of your faith tradition even if you are agnostic or atheist.”

“It is a participation of humanity honoring the humanity of others,” Cummings said.

Gun Violence Survivors — Juanita Batchelor, who has lost three family members to gun violence in the city, is among those who will take part in Greater Springfield Campaign Nonviolence's “Walk for Nonviolence” Sunday, June 27, at 2:30 p.m. from Wesley United Methodist Church at 741 State St. (Douglas Hook / MassLive)

Juanita Batchelor is among those who plan to join the walk. She knows well the trauma of violence in Springfield. Her 23-year-old son Darrell Jenkins Jr. was killed by gun violence June 4 2014; her 37-year-old niece Tamara Clark was fatally shot June 26, 2020, and son-in-law 27-year-old Reginald Dessasure died of gunshot wounds April 20.

“I do these walks in part to keep the names alive of these people,” Batchelor said. “These are our children and their lives mattered.”

She feels many families like hers have no closure when homicide cases remain unsolved and a sense they are forgotten.

“We want safe streets for ourselves and for our kids to know they can grow up safe,” Batchelor said. “We are coming out in unity together to show this is what we want.”

In 2018, Batchelor started Mother Overlooked, Reaching out, Empowerment to help those like herself who have lost family members to violence “make connections and come together around a common cause.”

“Grieving is forever,” Batchelor said. “You find ways to cope and get through it but you never get over the loss of your loved one taken from you in that type of manner.”

She has been the guardian since 2014 of her son’s two daughters, now 14 and 8.

“My daughter’s three children, two are seven-year-old twins and the baby is five months, are now fatherless from gun violence,” Batchelor said. “I have five grandkids being raised without a father. This is what keeps me going. They need to live and grow up in a safe place.”

She added, “We have to come together as a community to fight this violence in our city.”

Greater Springfield Nonviolence Campaign is connected to the service mission of Pace e Bene (”Peace and All Good”) that was founded in 1989 in California by Franciscan Friars there. The local campaign was started by Sister of St. Joseph Jane F. Morrissey who led the first nonviolence walk in 2014 and continues to be involved.

Other campaign work includes advocacy for the incorporation of a program into city schools that teaches students how to resolve conflicts without violence. It has also created a spin-off called Nonviolent Springfield Coalition whose mission is to involve participants from all of the city’s neighborhoods around the issue of gun violence.