Monday, January 14, 2008
PAX Celebrates Its Ten-Year Anniversary in 2008
This year marks the ten-year anniversary of PAX's founding. In that time, the organization has reached important milestones with its two groundbreaking national campaigns, ASK and SPEAK UP. The ASK - Asking Saves Kids - Campaign has inspired more than 20 million parents to ask if there are guns where their children play. The SPEAK UP Campaign, which features 1-866-SPEAK-UP, the first and only national hotline for students to anonymously report weapons threats, has received more than 20,000 calls. Together, these campaigns have prevented countless tragedies in communities across the United States.
In the ten years PAX has been working to end gun violence, the number of children who die each day in America from guns has declined from 11 to 8. While this number represents progress, it still represents a health crisis of epic proportions.
PAX's goal, in the next five years, is to cut the number of youth gun deaths in half. In the same way that we could not have achieved such significant progress over the past ten years without the help and support of numerous individuals, funders, and partner organizations, we will continue to establish innovative collaborations nationally and in local communities to promote real solutions that enable all Americans to help keep their communities safe.
