Pennsylvania woman's tribute pins for Uvalde school shooting victim reach Congress

A Pennsylvania woman is getting a lot of attention nationwide with pins she made in honor of the 21 lives lost in the Uvalde school shooting.

6 news spoke to the woman behind these pins who says they have recently been introduced and gifted to members of Congress.

“So, I'm selling these pins their called 'Maite’s Shoes' and they are in honor of Maite Rodriguez who was one of the victims of the Uvalde Robb Elementary school shooting in May 2022,” said Gina Gennari, the creator of 'Maite’s Shoes' pin.

Gennari said she decided to create these pins after seeing member of the House of Representatives wearing AR-15 pins - after mass shootings - such as the one at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde Texas just over a year ago.

“Thought well what can I do," added Gennari. "I'm just a, I'm just person from PA I don’t have any platforms so I just sketched these and made them on a whim to send to congress people and long story short ended up selling them and raising money to take them to Congress this past week.”

Gennari tells Channel 6 the story behind the design of the pins was inspired by Maite Rodriguez’ shoes - one of the victims of the Robb Elementary school shooting.

“So, Maite wanted a pair of converse and she went to the store with her mom and they couldn’t find a pair and low and behold when they were leaving the store she saw a box on the bottom shelf on the sale shelf and when she opened them they were green and green was her favorite color,” Gennari said.

Gennari also said she learned shoes often help officials identify victims after shootings or other acts of violence.

In April, Gennari created a Go Fund Me page called ‘Get Maites Shoes Around The World’ and not only has she already raised more than $10,000 but she has already saw members of Congress wearing them.

Gennari added, “Its just starting a conversation and it’s a way to get people to not only know Maite and her classmates and her teachers who were lost, it gets people to remember the community and it also gets people to start talking about ending gun violence and banning assault weapons.”

ncG1vNJzZmivmpawtcKNnKamZ56axLR7y6iamqRfpbKvutKyo6%2BZnp6ubsPOppinq12pv6qu1K2cZqiZo8Buss6rZK6ukaGxpnnSnJ%2Bop5xiwKm7zq2gp59dq7akwMimZKudkZi1bq%2FOp56rnaOo