Get Maite’s Shoes Across the USA!

Hi, my name is Gina Gennari, and I designed pins in honor of Maite Rodriguez, who was murdered by a mass shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, along with her classmates, on May 24, 2022. After seeing some members of the House of Representatives wearing AR-15 pins on the House Floor. I was shocked and disgusted. All I could think about was the families and friends who lost loved ones due to gun violence seeing this and feeling—what? Insulted? Ignored? Ridiculed? I can’t even imagine. But it made me so upset, I felt like I had to do something actionable. Maite was a charismatic 10-year-old girl who loved science, short haircuts, and the color green. According to her mother, Ana, she was “ambitious…focused…smart, bright, beautiful, and happy.” Maite dreamed of going to Texas A&M in Corpus Christi to study Marine Biology. She loved animals, especially dogs, and was endlessly curious and determined. She taught herself to sew and made pillows for her mom and stepfather, evidence of her ingenuity and kindness. Maite was best friends with her mom. They did everything as a unit and had a close relationship, getting into deep conversations about the “future, school, career, and who loved whom more.” Like all ten-year-olds, she was full of joy and life, and part of all that is good in this world. Ana bought Maite a pair of green Converse sneakers, which Maite adored. She even graffitied a black heart on one of the toes. Later, these shoes were one of the only ways her body could be identified after a mass shooter broke into her school and shattered the lives of so many. Maite’s shoes are not only an image associated with her beautiful life but of the twenty other precious souls who died with her, and the children who die all over this country because of preventable gun violence. My goal is to get Maite’s shoes on the floor of EVERY US STATE LEGISLATURE as a symbol of her beauty and strength, and as a reminder that real people are dying every day from gun violence, including small, innocent children. Instead of celebrating AR-15s, let’s remember all that they have the power to destroy. My GoFundMe will go directly to the effort to buy, package, and hand-deliver pins to every state to legislators who will bring them to their legislative floors, along with cards telling Maite’s story. I plan to document each part of the process so that you can cheer me along in getting Maite’s Shoes Across the US. I will be paying for part of the cost myself, but this fundraiser will get me closer to making it a reality. I know I’m a small person, but I truly believe that if all of us contributed our own ripple, we could start a tidal wave of change everywhere. #getmaitesshoestocongress #getmaitesshoesacrosstheUSA