Dwyane Wade just keeps on winning. The NBA all-star has found himself as a piece of the evolving story of the Stoneman Douglas mass shooting and the teenage-driving push for common sense gun law reforms. Just before the tragic shooting, Dwyane Wade was traded to the Miami Heat, sparking a lot of joy from Miami basketball fans, especially from one of his biggest fans, Joaquin Oliver, a 17-year-old Stoneman Douglas student who was killed in the shooting. Oliver was such a big fan, he was buried in a Dwyane Wade replica jersey.
Wade met with his family and made a trip to Stoneman Douglas high school, where he was treated to a hero’s welcome, lifting the spirits of the student and the faculty. See that joyous video below.
Wade promised to support the kids and he’s backing that up. Over the weekend he announced that he and his wife, actress Gabrielle Union, were donating $200,000 to the “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington, D.C.
Wade and Union also sponsored an art exhibit dedicated to the Parkland shooting victims.
From The Hill:
The exhibit includes statistics about gun violence and images of those killed in the shooting.
Calyann Barnett, the exhibit's creative director, told CBS that Wade wanted to include a call to action in the exhibit.
"Dwyane wanted to find a way to honor the victims but he also wanted to make sure that there was something behind this that you can honor, that you can remember what's coming next and what can we do to make sure this never happens again," Barnett said.
The exhibit also features a “Ring Your Rep” phone booth.
"There is a telephone booth to call your congressman," Jaclyn Corin, a student survivor of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told the station. "I think that's so cool because it's so important to know that there are people who can change this and you can have the option to talk to them and the fact that they're giving the option here so quickly and easily is wonderful."
Thank you, Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union. In one week, they’ve done more to combat gun violence than the president of the United States and all Republican leaders in Congress.
Here’s the moment Wade surprised the students at Stoneman Douglas.