RAWtools Weekend in CU – Friday

FRIDAY, JULY 29 – Guns to Garden Tools at Randolph St. Community Gardens, 1001 N Randolph St, Champaign.

5 pm – FREE food (donations welcome)
6 pm – RAWTOOLS program. RAWTOOLS blacksmiths operate the forge, transforming a gun into a garden tool while local artists, musicians, and storytellers guide a service of lament and transformative hope. The service ends with community members – especially those directly impacted by gun violence – invited to take the hammer themselves and help transform the gun.

What is RAWtools? RAWtools is a Colorado-based organization that is rooted in the Mennonite Church. The organization collects firearms, decommissions and dismantles them, and then uses a blacksmith’s fire and hammer to transform them into garden tools. The prophetic image comes from the Bible’s prophets: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)

Tools meant for destruction and death pass through the fire, emerging on the other side remade as a tool fashioned for growth and new life. This is the RAWtools vision for all of us caught up in cycles of violence and trauma. Transformation. Learn more about RAWtools at their website.