Republican state Rep. Sarah Vance and the founder of a local, conservative political action committee organized the event. They put it together within 24 hours, one week after Kirk was shot and killed at a university event in Utah.
Vance says she wanted to hold the remembrance before too much time had passed.
“So we said, hey, can we do this in 24 hours? Sure. And the weather opened up being beautiful, and we just sent out just an organic invitation, and people came,” Vance said.
The hour-long event featured prayers, hymns, and remarks from the organizers, local pastors and other community members.
Along with prayers for Kirk’s family, some also asked the crowd to pray for the family of the accused shooter. Multiple speakers talked about faith, the importance of community and the role of civic engagement.
Cassie Lawver, the founder of the Alaska Patriots political action committee, says she was grateful for the turnout and emphasized that the gathering was meant to give people a place to come together.
“This was actually done more or less Sarah and I doing this, not so much her office or not so much my PAC. Sarah and I really wanted to give the community a place to come and to mourn or celebrate or remember, however, anybody wants to do it,” Lawver said.
The event concluded with the crowd singing together. Organizers handed out copies of the U.S. Constitution to attendees as they left.
