ALUMNI JOIN THE MOVEMENT
From money to marches, former students ‘so fired up’
They, too, are ready to mobilize and determined to speak out.
The alumni of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have been brainstorming ways to support the students who lived through the massacre and are working to change the nation’s gun laws.
From Florida, New York, Tennessee, California, Massachusetts and many other states, graduates are raising money and writing letters to support the school’s students.
“We are all so fired up. It seems like the start of something big,” said Aamir Rahman, a lawyer in New York, class of 2008.
He organized a gathering on Monday at a bar in New York that raised $34,000 for the Broward Education Foundation’s Stoneman Douglas Victims’ Fund. He said about 400 people attended, including graduates of nearby high schools such as J.P. Taravella and Coral Springs.
Now, New York alumni are planning a night at a comedy club to benefit the students’ gun reform efforts.
“There’s a big group I’m still friends
with who I talk to every day,” said Rahman, who was vice president of his senior class. “I loved every minute I spent at Douglas. The teachers donated their free time and hosted us at their houses. People have found it annoying how much we still talk about high school.”
Abby Brafman, class of 2017 and a freshman at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, flew home the day after the shootings to be with her family and visit her neighbors.
When she arrived back in Tennessee, she made what she calls an impulsive decision: to organize a Nashville event of the March for Our Lives — the Washington, D.C., march for gun reform
planned for March 24.
“I shared it on Facebook and it exploded,” said Brafman, 19.
More than 2,000 people have said they will march in Nashville. Brafman created a Vanderbilt Task Force to divide responsibilities, such as fundraising, political outreach and logistics.
Brafman said she has had to get a quick education in becoming an organizer, such as working with city officials on permitting. She knows this activism could set the course for the rest of her life, and so she got a tattoo on the back of her neck with the number 17, in honor of the 17 victims who died and the year she graduated Douglas.
“I always thought that Douglas was different than other high schools. It was more competitive, people achieved at really high levels,”
she said. “It’s become really apparent we are very different.”
Rachel Sonenblum, class of 2012, has been working through a Facebook group, Mobilizing MSD Alumni, to have a more immediate effect, including volunteering with many others to make students’ first day back to school comfortable.
Among the projects: Each graduating class will contribute a banner to be displayed on fences around the school for the first day back.
Jon Fistel, president of the class of 2008, was organizing his 10-year reunion when he and the reunion committee changed course after the shootings.
They decided to create a multi-year reunion and fundraiser instead, and have already gotten commitments from the classes of 1998, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, he said.
“We realize something big is going on, and we want to push the students’ message,” said Fistel, who lives in Fort Lauderdale and works for a window and door company.
Fistel said he remains deeply connected to his high school friends and teachers.
“Seeing some of my former teachers on TV has moved me to tears,” said Fistel, who on Thursday attended the funeral of Coach Aaron Feis, who died during the shootings. “They were like family, they weren’t just teachers.”
“It didn’t surprise me that Douglas would mobilize after what happened,” he said. “What surprised me was the rest of the nation’s positive reception.”