NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Dozens of people will be in Centennial Park Thursday evening to remember the lives lost to gun violence in Nashville. It's called the Season to Remember.
This is the 29th year for the event and organizers say the effort helps families ensure that homicide victims are not forgotten during the rush of the holiday season.
The event is sponsored by the police department’s Family Intervention Program, the District Attorney’s Office, Tennessee Voices for Victims and the U-S Attorney’s Office. During the service, relatives and friends of the victims will place Christmas ornaments on a tree in the Children’s Garden in memory of their loved ones. Every ornament is dedicated to a loved one who their families say were taken too soon.
This has been a tradition since 1995, where families and friends who have lost someone to homicide have come together to place Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa remembrance decorations and ornaments on the special evergreen tree.
MNPD’s Family Intervention Program is coordinating the event and will be on hand early to offer support to family members. These families say not a holiday goes by where they don't remember their loved one, and this is a way they can celebrate the holiday with those they say are forever in their hearts.
The event will start at 5:45 p.m.
There are still so many families in East Tennessee hurting following the floods from Hurricane Helene in September. That made this year's running of the Santa Train extra special for many families in the northeast part of the state. This special Santa Express has been making an annual run in part of Appalachia for over 80 years.
-Lelan Statom
