On a wiffleball field outside of the site of a mass shooting, Annunciation School Principal Matthew DeBoer said what was on many people’s minds.

“We don't want to be standing here today,” he told a crowd of about 125 people at a prayer service on Saturday, “but we choose to stand here.”

On August 27 — just one month earlier — two children were killed and 21 people injured in shooting during a worship service that drew attention worldwide, including from Pope Leo XIV. Harper Moyski, 10, and Fletcher Merkel, 8, both students at the school, died that day.

“We’re here to stand, to sing, to live, to non-violently fight for Harper and Fletcher and all of us impacted by that day,” DeBoer said. “Remembering what happened, but not being defined by what happened.”

Jen Campbell has been an active

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