TULALIP – Dana Arviso, Dine’, executive director of the philanthropic Potlatch Fund, made this announcement on October 27 about the upcoming Potlatch Fund gala at the Tulalip Hotel Resort Casino:
“After speaking with representatives from the Tulalip Tribes to offer our profound condolences and words of comfort, Potlatch Fund will move forward with holding our gala on Saturday, November 1. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Tulalip Tribal community, Marysville community, Marysville-Pilchuck High School student body, and all the families impacted by this terrible tragedy.
“We will open the dinner portion of the gala with a moment of silence followed by a healing song to acknowledge the tragedy that has impacted the Tulalip and Marysville communities and offer a space for reflection and healing for all.”
The Tulalip and Marysville communities are grieving after the shooting on October 24 at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. A student, Jaylen Ray Fryberg, 15, of Tulalip shot five classmates in the head before turning the handgun on himself. Fryberg and two other students died; three others — two of them his cousins — are being treated in area hospitals.
Fryberg was generally viewed as a happy and popular student-athlete, but his Twitter messages over the last couple of months indicate he was deeply troubled by personal crises.
Arviso added, “Our hearts go out to everyone affected and even though it’s difficult to hold our event amidst such tragedy, so much of our work that we do at Potlatch Fund is about investing in our Native youth and strengthening our communities.”
The Potlatch Fund raises money to support Native arts, community building, language preservation and education, and the Canoe Journey. In 2014, the Potlatch Fund awarded $242,220 in grants to individuals, organizations and Tribes in the Northwest.
Read more at https://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/10/29/moment-silence-healing-song-planned-potlatch-fund-gala-157584