'Wear Orange' Blood Drive To Be Held At Geneva Center for the Arts

GENEVA, IL — Each June, Wear Orange is observed in remembrance of Hadiya Pendleton, who was fatally shot on a playground in Chicago in January 2013. By wearing orange, the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves, participants honor Hadiya and "demand a future free from gun violence once and for all."

Just in time for Friday's National Gun Violence Awareness Day, a Wear Orange blood drive is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday in Geneva. The event will be held in the parking lot of the Geneva Center for the Arts, 321 Stevens St.

A sign-up form for Sunday's blood drive can be found online.

Other events, including a peace vigil, pride parade and peace fest, are set to take place throughout the Chicagoland area this weekend, which marks Wear Orange's eighth year. The organization began on June 2, 2015, what would have been Hadiya's 18th birthday.

The color orange, according to the group, "honors more than 110 lives cut short and the hundreds more wounded by gun violence every day."

"In the wake of multiple tragedies, the fight to end gun violence has never been more urgent," the group's website reads. "During National Gun Violence Awareness Day and Wear Orange Weekend, we join together to demand a future free from gun violence once and for all."