Thursday, April 21, 2005
FIFTH-ANNUAL ASK DAY SET FOR JUNE 21, HIGHLIGHTED BY THE BIG ASK COMPETITON
PAX / Real Solutions to Gun Violence and its partner, the American Academy of Pediatrics, announce that the fifth annual ASK Day will take place June 21.Set on the first day of summer, ASK Day is a yearly event designed to accentuate the importance of parents asking if there are guns in the homes where their children play.
Eight children are killed and 33 are wounded from guns every day, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, statistics that are unmatched across the developed world.
"These numbers are disheartening and unacceptable," said Daniel Gross, PAX CEO and co-founder. "We hear far too many stories of senseless tragedies involving children and guns. Parents can help make their children safer, however. All they have to do is ask."
For ASK Day 2005, PAX and AAP are asking their supporters and those who care about children's safety to make sure as many people as possible know about the importance of asking.
Called The Big ASK, the challenge is to blanket the country with the letters A-S-K in as creative and imaginative a way as possible - from painting the letters in a field to spelling them out with children to skywriting to mowing them in a yard to baking cookies.Good Housekeeping Magazine is asking for all participants to send in a picture of their Big ASK, and it will publish the best entries. Please send your entries to:
PAX / Real Solutions to Gun Violence
30 Broad Street, 22nd Fl.
New York, NY 10004
For more information on ASK Day please visit: www.paxusa.org/ask/askday.html
"More homes have guns than dogs," Gross said. "Yet no parent thinks twice about asking about dogs. Ask if there is a gun in the homes where your children play. If there is, and it's not safely stored separate from the ammunition, invite the children to play at your home. It's that simple and it could save your child's life."
PAX was founded in 1998 to bring new and effective solutions to the problem of gun violence in America - a public health crisis that claims the lives of 8 children every day. The non-profit company has since grown into the largest non-lobbying gun violence prevention organization in the nation. More importantly, PAX's work provides parents, children and others everywhere with simple solutions to make their homes, families and communities safer-solutions, which are literally saving children's lives every day.
