As the community reacted in shock to last weekend’s shooting, two friends came together to offer a way for everyone to show their love and support to Const. David Wynn and Auxiliary Const. Derek Bond and their families.
Debbie Raymond and Tara McCormick call it St. Albert United in Light and they want to wrap the city in white ribbons in a massive show of solidarity.
“The white ribbon signifies community support,” explained Raymond. “I think that in a time of need, we need to come together as a community. This is a very, very dark time.”
Together, they organized a team of approximately 40 volunteers at the Next Christian Community Church on Monday evening. In the span of an hour, the crew had created more than 600 ribbons, which some volunteers then tied to trees in various locations around St. Albert, focusing partly on Boudreau Road around the RCMP detachment.
Neither of the organizers know Wynn or Bond personally. Their activism was all borne out of the emotional response they experienced in the face of such a public tragedy.
Raymond said that she just felt lost after hearing the news.
“It was a void feeling of ‘What can you do? How can you help?’ Really, there is no answer for that. There’s nothing any of us can do. Someone said to me that this could be the biggest thing that’s ever happened in St. Albert. I thought, you know what, I can’t sit idle.”
“Tara puts her heart and soul behind everything. I sent her a message. ‘I have this idea. I have this white ribbon. Can you help?’ She said, ‘I’m all in!’”
A similar community movement has encouraged residents to leave their porch lights on. Flowers have been left at the RCMP detachment. There have even been reports of people trying to deliver meals to the Wynn house. Some city churches held prayer services last night also.
The two were both thoroughly pleased with the show of support, and the momentum seems to be building. Through their Facebook page at United in Light St. Albert, they announced that they are hoping for more volunteers and more ribbon. That call was answered quickly, with a donation 8,000 yards of white ribbon by Edmonton business Powerplay Sports & the Ribbon Factory.
That meant that the organizers were back at it again with another ribbon. After all, the city has a lot of trees, they said. McCormick suggested that nothing is impossible when people have their hearts in the right place.
“Wouldn’t it be awesome if the whole city was full of white ribbons? I hope this doesn’t end here,” she said.
