Local Irish dance school honoring Parkland shooting victim

February 25, 2018 5:38 pm

By: Chloe Leshner

cleshner@abc6.com

@cleshnerabc6

CUMBERLAND, R.I. (WLNE) — One of the 17 victims of the Parkland, Florida school shooting was an avid Irish dancer. A local school has started a worldwide movement to honor the 14 year old.

Across the country and even overseas, Irish dancers have been wearing purple in honor of a freshman who died in the Parkland shooting. Students here in Rhode Island, motivated to fight for change in her memory.

Rhode Island teenagers doing what they love to do, now fully aware of how lucky they are to be able to after 14 year old Cara Loughran, who was just as passionate about Irish dancing, was killed in the Parkland school shooting.

"Cara’s life didn’t just end the day she died in the Parkland shooting. Her legacy will live on and the Irish dance community will continue to keep her life alive and celebrate and honor her," says Erika Damiani, the owner of Tir Na Nog Irish Dance School.

They’re wearing Cara’s favorite color purple and through social media, they’ve inspired other Irish dancers to do the same.

"From our one small school in the smallest state in the U.S., it has spread across the nation it has jumped the pond its in Ireland and Scotland and there are so many schools that are jumping on board and wearing purple honoring Cara’s life and bringing awareness to the issue," says Damiani.

The shooting forcing students here to confront a new reality.

"It’s not that everyone’s terrified, everyone’s just more cautious now," says Piper Labarre, a senior at North Smithfield High School.

Wearing purple is just the first step. They want change for Cara, inspired by the Stoneman Douglas students who are now demanding action on gun control.

"To go through something like that and then to take it and turn it into change, that’s what we’re supposed to learn from scary things, to make life better," says Kathryn Grupp, a junior at La Salle Academy.

"The teens are completely inspirational and when they say the children are the future, they really are proving that they are and they want change and they want to do something about this tragedy," adds Hailey Joyce, a senior at Lincoln High.

All of the schools are taking pictures with posters with Cara’s name on it and sending them to Cara’s dance school in Florida.