Through a powerful collaboration between three Fort Collins High School (FCHS) clubs, a new display in the school library honors the 800 plus Coloradans who lost their lives to gun violence in 2021 .
The display features hundreds of origami boxes - folded and decorated by FCHS students - with each box memorializing a Coloradoan killed by gunfire last year. Created in partnership with the national non-profit The Soul Box Project, the display is meant to promote empathy, healing and encourage a dialog about gun culture in Colorado.
“The display is all about awareness – getting people interested in major issues that our society is facing today,” said Tristin, a senior at FCHS.
Participating FCHS clubs included the National Art Honor Society (NAHS), Amnesty International and the Latin American Student Association. NAHS is a service-based art club, which contributes to art projects at FCHS and throughout the community. Amnesty International is a human rights club that typically picks a human rights topic to focus on for the year. The Latin American Student Association honors, preserves, and educates the student body about Latinx cultures.
“This project was a wonderful opportunity to highlight the impact of gun violence in our state, and also to allow for the three clubs to collaborate in a meaningful way,” said Allison Alters, FCHS art teacher and NAHS club sponsor.
The idea of the install started when Jody Snow, FCHS world languages teacher, experienced a curated exhibit by Martha Denney called, “How we Hold It-Containing Our Lives,” at the Global Village Museum in Fort Collins. This exhibit planted the seed to partner with The Soul Box Project. Materials to create the origami boxes were provided by generous community donations. Volunteers assisted in planning the official installation.
For Hailey, a senior at FCHS, this project gave her a visual representation of victims of gun violence.
“This project personalized the gun violence statistics,” Hailey said. “Every student right now is more familiar with the drills to protect us from gun violence, but seeing the victims presented through the soul box project brought attention to gun violence and allowed students to come together and form a new perspective.”
For Tristin, the project provided an outlet to interact with other clubs that he would not normally see.
“Making the soul boxes was an easy way to get more people involved because it was a tangible thing others could do to help the cause,” Tristin said. “I was excited to see many people willing to spend their time raising awareness for gun violence through art.”
During this project, there were two major gun violence incidents that the group had to cope with - the shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan and the rampage in Denver, which targeted the tattoo community.
“As an educator, every time there is a school shooting it has an immediate impact,” shared Elaine Holmes, FCHS social studies teacher and club sponsor of Amnesty International. “We are again made aware of our vulnerabilities, and we rethink our systems in place to keep our buildings safe.”
Holmes has friends who were connected to the victims at Sol Tribe, one of the locations impacted by the Denver shooting. The student group made soul boxes for those victims, adding them to the final display.
