Marysville Pilchuck High invites communities to unite on anniversary

Published 6:43 am Thursday, October 22, 2015

MARYSVILLE — For more than a week now, a portable electronic reader board outside the fire hall has blinked out the same message.

In one moment, it informs passersby: “Special event MPHS 10/24.”

In the next, it warns: “Expect long delays.”

Organizers wouldn’t mind seeing a few delays Saturday morning around Marysville Pilchuck High School. It would be a sign of support as the school and the Marysville and Tulalip communities pay tribute to young lives lost in the cafeteria shootings a year ago to the day.

By design, the largely student-organized event — dubbed “#MP Stronger: A Walk of Strength” — will be short on speeches and long on togetherness.

“That was intentional,” Marysville School Superintendent Becky Berg said. “This is not about tying up a microphone with a bunch of people in suits. It is about community and fellowship and just being together. That was really the intention from the beginning.”

Marysville became national news a year ago after a freshman shot five classmates, killing four, in the school cafeteria. He also killed himself.

A moment of silence is planned at 10:39 a.m. to mark the time lives were taken.

The students wanted an active and positive event. Those huddled in the stadium Saturday will be encouraged to help plant 10,000 bulbs at the south end of the stadium. The communal planting of the tulips in the school’s red and white colors is meant to convey hope, beauty and renewal. The walk around the 87-acre campus is a show of unity.

No one really knows how many people to expect.

“Whoever shows up is meant to be there,” Berg said. “People will all remember it in different ways. Some people may need to stay home that day and others of us will want to be together.”

On Monday, amid the sounds of whirring machines and the smell of curing ink, more than 2,000 T-shirts were made for the occasion at the Design Matrix Group screen print shop roughly two miles from the high school. The Oxford gray shirts feature the words “United Marysville and Tulalip” in tall bold capital letters with the mountains in between. The 10/24/14 date is found above the E in Marysville.

The design melded elements offered by several MPHS students.

Lasting Impressions, the Marysville company producing the T-shirts, doesn’t expect to make money on the project. And that’s fine with owner Karmin Kippen. She’s a 1990 MPHS graduate whose parents started the company in their back yard 33 years ago. As a child, she’d hop on her bike to pick up and drop off artwork for their graphic artist. The MPHS Stronger project is personal.

“I just bid it low so we could help out the recovery committee,” she said. “It was basically to support the community like so many others have done.”

The recovery committee numbers 75 with about three dozen regulars, including school employees, parents, clergy, tribal members, city workers and social organizations. Saturday’s walk is one of many undertakings.

Marysville Police Chief Rick Smith said he hopes the victims’ families will feel the community support.

“We live moment by moment, day by day, in terms of trying to recover from this,” Smith said. “Whatever we are facing is nothing like they are facing.”

Mayor Jon Nehring applauded students for how they organized Saturday’s event.

“What people seem to want is a time to be together and reflect,” he said. “I think there’s also a resolve that we are not going to allow the community and the school to be defined by one evil act.”

Tara Mizell is a member of the recovery committee. It is a group that has felt compassion from other communities that have endured mass shootings.

These days, the Marysville contingent is working with people from Roseburg, Oregon, where an instructor and eight students were shot and killed at Umpqua Community College earlier this month. Nine other students were injured before the shooter died.

“It’s a club you don’t want to be a part of,” Mizell said. “I want people to know that every day we continue to grieve but every day we continue to get stronger.”

Rochelle Lubbers also is part of the recovery committee. She’s a tribal member who grew up on the reservation and graduated from MPHS in 1999. Today, she’s the tribe’s recovery manager. She speaks eloquently about the community — and communities within it — working together to heal.

Saturday is another salve.

“We know the effects of this tragedy will be around for a long time,” she said. “By no means do we want people to think this ends the grieving process. It is a part of it.”

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.

Event

Gates open at 9 a.m. for Saturday’s “#MP Stronger: A Walk of Strength” at Marysville Pilchuck High School. The event, which will include time to visit beforehand, plant tulips and reflect as a community, marks one year since the cafeteria shootings ended the lives of five freshmen, including the shooter.