MIAMI (WSVN) - Activists and loved ones came together in Miami for a touching tribute to children killed by gun violence.
Dozens gathered to remember Sherdavia Jenkins, the 9-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet in July 2006, at the park that bears her name on what would have been her 22nd birthday, Friday.
The memorial has since become an annual event.
Everyone involved wants to see the violence come to an end.
David Jenkins, Sr., Sherdavia’s father, said, “This is a village showing out, trying to support the memory of all our lost children. All of this violence this should serve as a legacy saying, ‘Look, we are losing our stars of the future, and if we lose our stars of the future, what kind of world are we going to end up with?'”
Sherdavia’s immediate family and her community came together to hold up her memory as a source of inspiration.
“Her life was something to be celebrated,” Catherine Jenkins, Sherdavia’s sister, said. “She was a bright student. She did help a lot of friends in her school. She did play chess. She did love the arts. That helps other children say, ‘Hey, I can do this, too. I like chess. Maybe I could be good in chess and be a famous chess player. Hey, I’m good at art. Maybe I can try more art stuff and be in an art gallery one day.”
One place they can get that training to reach their potential is at the MEYGA Learning Center, a mentoring program at the park designed to steer children away from the lure of the streets and towards more productive pursuits.
“We have to create more activities. They need to have more safe places to go, like MEYGA,” Samantha Quarterman of the MEYGA Learning Center said.
Sadly for many, the center’s efforts came too late.
Sherdavia was the 109th child homicide in Miami-Dade County in 2006.
Since then, hundreds of names have been added to the horrific list.
“We should not be burying children,” said a funeral director. “Children should be burying their parents.”
Although the Jenkins family is heartbroken, they have remained undaunted and have made it their mission to do whatever it takes to bring an end to the senseless shooting of young people, while upholding the legacy of their little girl gone too soon.
“When I look at this park, this monument and everything that’s out here, flowers, the trees, I remember the beautiful side of this rather than the tragedy,” David Jenkins, Sr. said.
The man convicted of firing the stray bullet that killed Sherdavia Jenkins is serving a 50-year prison sentence.
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