Children’s Bereavement Center’s Kiln is Up and Running!

As many of you know shortly after the shooting St. Philip’s was contacted by two pottery studio owners from Las Vegas, Jackie Burrows and Gail Schomisch, regarding a tile project they wanted to provide for the community of Uvalde. They offered to come to Uvalde, hold tile painting workshops in various locations, and provide all the necessary supplies. Their hope is to display the tiles as a legacy project for all who were killed, injured, and affected by the event on May 24th.

Jackie and Gail are compassionate women whose hearts were broken when they heard about the Robb Shooting and they were well aware of what the community would be go through in the months and years to come. They had experienced this same loss, grief, and disbelief in 2017 when 55 people were killed in a mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas.

After the Las Vegas shooting they immediately started huge pop-up tile painting events where people could come, be in community with one another, and express their feelings of pain and sadness, and create memorial/legacy tiles through art. Eventually the Las Vegas tiles were placed in a healing garden that has become a place remembrance, reflection, and prayer.

Jackie and Gail, along with many of their studio association friends and numerous generous vendors came through for Uvalde by donating their time and ample supplies. Jackie and Gail have come back to Uvalde on numerous occasions and they are committed to seeing this project to completion. Because of Jackie and Gail and the wonderful people at Skutt Kiln Co., the Children’s Bereavement Center is the recipient of a brand new state of the art kiln here in Uvalde. Last week Jackie, Gail, and Michelle (another studio owner from Belton) spent a week in Uvalde training several individuals on how to properly use the kiln.

While many of the tiles have been fired, we have many more to fire and get ready for their permanent location. We believe a place has been secured to house the tiles in a beautiful space accessable to the community of Uvalde. Stay tuned for the details.