Episode 1: Gina Warren
Script:
Welcome to the first episode of “Hero of the Week.”
My name is Dru Freeman and every week we will take a look at a person who has taken a stand to defend their opinions in the hopes of making the world a better place.
Each week, I go thru news and try to find people who exemplify actions of world love and peace. This show may be viewed as skewing to the left a little; so your best bet if this may be offensive or wrong to you; is to find a podcast more suited to your tastes; or to hang on and hope that maybe something in here will make you feel better about the world.
This week’s focus takes us to the town of Ashville, Ohio where a high school senior took steps to make sure that while she was able to celebrate her graduation; that people should not forget the numerous students who would not graduate this year due to their untimely deaths by school shootings.
Gina Warren was motivated to take action after she saw the Parkland students painting price tags on their caps to symbolize their worth to Sen. Marco Rubio in contrast to the donations he had taken from the NRA. Gina had already made statements on this as early as Prom with orange makeup and shoes that bore the word “Enough.” But for her this wasn’t enough.
Using the technology of QRCodes; which allows compression of information into a picture that most smart phones can easily translate; she created a picture for her cap that would take viewers to a web page that listed students from many of the schools that had died from gun violence. In her words to CNN and Buzzfeed she wanted to make just as powerful statement, but instead of directing it towards lawmakers or the NRA; she wanted to direct it to everyone who sees it.
The message on the page reads, “I graduated. These high school students couldn’t. Protect our students. Vote” Between the statements is the “Rediculously long” list that she researched from Wikipedia among other sites.
Gina made sure that she didn’t politicize gun rights, she only talks about the results of gun violence and asks people to remember to vote.
Gina posted a tweet of her cap’s QR Code and a smart phone opening up the page online. That tweet has garnered nearly 325000 likes, been retweeted nearly 93000 times and has had the code replicated by countless others for their graduation caps as well.
We are proud and honored to name Gina Warren our Hero of the Week.
Hero of the Week is produced and written by Dru Freeman. If you know of someone you feel deserves to be our hero of the week, let us know on twitter at @PodcastDru. This show is copyrighted 2019 by A “Dru” Freeman
Links:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/us/student-graduation-cap-qr-code-school-shooting-trnd/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/high-school-senior-decorates-graduation-cap-qr-code/story?id=63028256
https://www.boredpanda.com/graduation-cap-qr-code-school-shooting-victims-gina-warren/