WRITTEN IN VIC'S OWN HAND
Turning online outcry vs. guns into letters ‘by’ slain Parkland teen
LIKE clockwork, every new school shooting in America sparks the same firestorm of grief and outrage on social media — but Facebook and Twitter posts are easy for pro-gun lawmakers to ignore.
So a Manhattan ad agency working with survivors of the Parkland, Fla., shooting has launched a project that turns social-media posts into letters printed in the handwriting of a young man slain in the Feb. 14 massacre.
The letters are then sent to Congress.
The project, called Posts Into Letters, was created by the ad shop Area 23 and Change the Ref, a nonprofit that advances young people’s agendas and was founded by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose 17year-old son, Joaquin, was one of the 17 people murdered that day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS.
“The project was originally about people donating funds. Then we came together with the idea of turning Joaquin’s handwriting into letters to have a greater impact on people and make them react. It’s really been amazing having letters in Joaquin’s own handwriting,” Manuel Oliver, an artist and graphic designer, told The Post Thursday.
“Because of the tragedy, we were looking for more nonconventional ways to attract people’s attention. Anything.”
To send a message, people need to visit the Post Into Letters Web site and chose to create or paste a message using either Twitter or Facebook.
The software turns the posts into Joaquin’s handwriting with a mouse click, and people can either print them out and mail them themselves or enter their ZIP code and have it mailed to their House and Senate members automatically.
In a YouTube video created by Area 23 to promote the platform, Oliver talks about losing his son.
“My name is Manuel Oliver. I lost my son, Joaquin, at the Parkland shooting. He was my best friend. Every single day we feel pain,” he says.
He says the letters — “written by Joaquin” — will send an unavoidable message to lawmakers.
“These guys are going to reach their offices,” he says, holding up envelopes. “And they’re gonna find all this right on top of their desks. How are they gonna ignore that?
“We are giving a voice to Joaquin. So he can talk,” continues Oliver, who provided Area 23 four of his son’s school notebooks so it could create a font that mimics the teen’s handwriting, including letters, numerals and punctuation marks.
More than 25,000 letters have already been sent to members of Congress, including ones by Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, two of Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS’s most prominent survivors.
AREA 23 senior copywriter Clay MacGuire said she and her colleagues wanted to do something positive that could lead to changes in the country’s gun laws.
“In the wake of the Parkland shooting, many of the people at the agency felt helpless. We wanted to do something to make a difference,” she told The Post.
“One of our new employees just moved here from the Parkland area, and other employees have been personally touched by gun violence. We wanted to tackle this issue as a united front,” she said, referring to Fabio Ozorio, the firm’s associate creative director.
The shop’s managing and creative director, Tim Hawkey, wanted Area 23 to do what it could to keep guns out of schools, she added.
Ozorio said they found a Congressional Management Foundation survey that showed that 96 percent of Capitol Hill staff agreed that handwritten letters were the best
way to influence change.
“So together with Change the Ref, we created something politicians can’t scroll past: letters written with the handwriting of Joaquin Oliver,” Ozorio said.
MacGuire said: “We decided to use social-media posts to impact change. The robots and handwriting naturally evolved from there.”
She said the firm first reached out to Oliver and his wife with the idea.
“Manuel and Patricia have been amazing partners. We went to them at an early stage of our process, and together we quickly realized that the way to make the biggest impact with our Posts Into Letters project would be to use the handwriting of their son,” MacGuire said.
The experience has deeply touched the agency’s staff.
“A group of us went to Parkland for the March For Our Lives. Our flights were getting canceled one by one due to a storm, so we hopped in a car and drove 21 hours through sleet and ice to make it in time,” MacGuire said.
“It was very important to us to be there and show our support. I don’t think we will ever forget what it felt like to be in the middle of active change.”
The response, she said, has been overwhelmingly positive.
“This project has been profoundly moving for all who have seen it. The March For Our Lives students, including Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg, shared the project and encouraged their followers to help give Joaquin a voice,” she said.
“It is such a personal thing, for a father to share his lost son’s handwriting in his search for change. And the project is built on something even more powerful: hope.”
So far, they have gotten nothing but crickets from Congress but have not given up hope.
“From holding Joaquin’s school notebooks to recreating his handwriting, the whole process has been full of emotions. We knew we were being trusted with the handwriting of someone who can’t talk anymore, but that Joaquin can now continue fighting for change,” Ozorio said.
CAROL Chenkin, who helps run Change the Ref, said the Parkland students were quick to embrace the program.
“The students are truly moved by it. They really like the ability it gives them to have their social-media post changed into letters that are being sent to political figures in their districts,” she said from Florida.
“They have been truly moved by the fact that their messages are being sent with Joaquin’s handwriting. It is a very impactful piece of this program.”
Joaquin’s parents, she said, have been inspirational.
“As a parent, my heart is broken for Manuel and Patricia, no one should have to endure such a horrible senseless loss. I cry often. It is heartwrenching to feel their pain, during the course of the last several months, there have been many first moments and more are coming, Graduation, Father’s Day, Joaquin’s birthday,” she said.
While the effort is raising awareness, she said nothing would change as long as politicians keep pocketing big bucks from the gun lobby and do its bidding on Capitol Hill.
Manuel Oliver described his son as “a deep, thoughtful person, very involved in human rights” who had not chosen a career path but knew he wanted to make a difference in the world.
“We had this conversation many times. ‘ What are you going to do with your life?’ I would ask him. He would say, ‘I do know that I will be great, and everyone will know who I am.’”
'We are giving a voice to Joaquin. n. So he can talk.'
— Manuel Oliver, whose son, Joaquin, was murdered in the Parkland, Fla., shooting