On the morning of the shooting, I received a call from another volunteer about the Reynolds shooting. Two of “our girls” who regularly come to the design studio attend Reynolds High School.

Hope Amidst the Reynolds Tragedy

Several weeks ago, the Reynolds High School shooting left the entire Portland community in shock and grief. One volunteer from the Adorned in Grace Design Studio, whose mission is to “bring the love of Christ to at-risk teens in low-income, high crime neighborhoods by providing a safe place for girls to express themselves,” wanted to share her story:

On the morning of the shooting, I received a call from another volunteer about the Reynolds shooting. Two of “our girls” who regularly come to the design studio attend Reynolds High School. Worried, I immediately texted one of the girls to see if they were safe.

She responded that yes, she was safe, and that they were currently still in lockdown at school. She didn’t know whether the shooter was still active, or how many people had been injured. She also didn’t know where our other student was. I decided to leave my cart at the grocery store, where I had been shopping, and go home to find out more.

After calling our other student’s mom, I knew they were both currently safe and in lockdown. Hearing this was a relief, and I let all the other Design Studio volunteers know, asking them to keep praying for all of the students and teachers involved. I watched the news coverage of the event for a while, and was back at the store several hours later bagging my groceries when the girls called me and asked me to pick them up at Fred Meyer, where police were making sure the students left with a trusted adult.

When I arrived at Fred Meyer, I had difficulty finding the girls at first. After explaining who I was and getting permission to take them home, I asked the girls if they were hungry. After all they had just been through, I wanted a chance to talk about it with them, and help them process what had just happened.

We went to Burger King, where other people at the tables around us were also talking about the shooting. The girls had heard lots of rumors, and at that time we didn’t really know how many of them were true. They were joking around quite a bit, and I asked them how they were doing.

“We’re doing fine now, but we’ll probably go home, sit on my bed, and cry,” one of them told me, anticipating that the emotions would hit them later.

That Thursday at the Design Studio, we took the opportunity to process what had happened even further. Many of the other girls at the studio were asking questions, so we took out some Bibles and took them all through verses about trusting God, even when things don’t make sense. It opened the door for girls to talk about other difficult experiences in their lives as well.

Besides being thankful that these girls were not harmed in the shooting, I’m just so glad they knew they could call us next when their parents couldn’t pick them up. A situation like this really shows the need that we’re filling in the lives of these girls. We want to be the person they call whenever they’re in a tough situation, and do our best to show Christ’s love by meeting them there.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor at the Adorned in Grace Design Studio, please contact the Studio for more information.