Memorial
to the Lost

A Memorial to the Lost® is a unique, visible education tool developed by Heeding to honor victims of gun violence and their surviving families. Tee-shirts with names and dates of those murdered by gun violence during a previous year in a designated area are displayed in front of a congregation’s building or in a public space where community members can experience in a tangible way the loss of life and disruption of lives that gun violence creates. Often, people will stop their car after driving by and return to see exactly what’s being portrayed; they will walk among the shirts, pause and pray, sometimes even finding the name of a loved one or neighbor. The Philadelphia Memorial usually contains close to 300 names reminding us of the immensity of the problem.

The first Memorial to the Lost was installed on MLK Weekend in January 2013 on the front lawn of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut of Chestnut Hill in Philadelphia. Then, as now, Heeding’s Memorial to the Lost honors those taken by gun murder and their families. Memorials are colorful and portable tee-shirt memorials.  Each tee-shirt lists the name, age and date of death of a gun murder victim of the relevant locale. Purposes of the Memorial program include demonstrating the toll of gun murder and educating the public about how guns reach the street.

That first Memorial was intended to be a ‘one off,’ but was such an immediate sensation with the public and media that Heeding heard from many people of faith who asked for us to install it at their faith community. Heeding’s Memorial to the Lost program remains so popular that, more than a decade later, we have locally based Memorials for Philadelphia and its four surrounding counties, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Lehigh Valley, and Allegheny County.

Families of those whose tee-shirts are part of a Memorial to the Lost are especially grateful, often feeling that the media ignores their loss.  If a family member contact us, we seek to meet them at the relevant Memorial to give them their loved one's shirt and pray with them.

Heeding is eager for more people and communities of faith in more places to host a Memorial to the Lost.  We encourage anyone interested to reach out to us via our contact page, email, or by voicemail to (251) 385-3404.  We hope to hear from you.

Click here for a five-minute video introduction of the Memorial to the Lost on YouTube.