HIGHLAND PARK (WLS) — The tributes have been ongoing and it has been a long emotional week for so many after the deadly July 4 Highland Park parade shooting.The people of Highland Park are getting their community back Sunday in another step to a long road to recovery.
After a week of investigation and businesses shutting their doors, downtown Highland Park is back open again. Barricades just lifted near 2nd and Central streets.
The entire downtown area is now a symbol of just how resilient this community is, with memorials honoring the victims and art demanding an end to gun violence.
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The community saw more of those calls for change Saturday as hundreds rallied in downtown.
Downtown business owner Aly Pedowitz prepared to reopen her seven stores for the first time.
She said healing is a community effort.
“We will be able to reclaim it as this place, where we can all be together and be happy and heal together and just support one another,” she said.
People even came in from neighboring towns to say enough is enough.
“We cannot become numb to this. We have to keep fighting,” said Pat Callahan a Western Springs resident.
For some of those who still want to call Highland Park home, re-claiming peace through healing isn’t enough. They want change.
“You want to make sure that you have a presence; that you are not always sheltering and hiding; that we will come together and that we can try to make change,” said Mark Schnitzer, a Highland Park resident.
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It’s a big first step for the community Sunday as they attempt to move on together, while also demanding changes to this country’s gun laws.
So many are hoping something good can come from this tragedy.
More services are scheduled Sunday in honor of the parade shooting victims.
Awakened Soul Living will host a community healing circle from 3:33 p.m. to 5:55 p.m. at Glencoe Beach Park.
At 4:00 p.m., Glencoe Union Church will hold an interfaith service, with representatives from each participating faith community.
At 7:30 p.m., the Highland Park Students Demand Action chapter of Everytown for Gun Safety will host a vigil at Sunset Park.
Separate funerals were held Friday for three of the seven victims killed – 63-year-old Jacquelyn Sundheim, 88-year-old Stephen Straus and 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza, who, like Uvaldo, was from Waukegan, a city north of Highland Park along the Lake Michigan coast.
A funeral service was also held Saturday for Eduardo Uvaldo, who died Wednesday at an Evanston hospital from wounds suffered during the attack on the parade.
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