In the aftermath of the Lewiston mass shooting on Oct. 25, grieving families of the victims are struggling both emotionally and financially. The Lewiston Sun Journal ran a heartwrenching story last Saturday about UPS driver Tyler Barnard who lost his brother Arthur “Artie” Strout in the tragedy. On the night of the shooting, his UPS scanner alerted him of the shooting and it’s a sound that still haunts him to this day.
“The last message I got (that night) was ‘Hey there’s a shooting here … a shooting here,’" Barnard told the Sun Journal. "So, I get really bad anxiety … every time my scanner goes off."
Barnard said his anxiety has made it more difficult to do his job and he’s only been able to work two days in the past month. As a result, he’s needed help covering rent because he hasn’t been able to earn enough money to cover it.
“I sit in a truck anywhere between eight to 14 hours out of the day, listening to a motor roar, and I get to sit in my own thoughts every day,” Barnard said. “It’s all mental. I know it will go away. I keep having like weird dreams, bad dreams, as if I’m there with them and like we both get shot. And all you do is sit there and you see … he turns over and he says everything is going to be OK. And then the gunman walks back over and then puts a bunch of bullets in us.”
Barnard said that the family has received tremendous support from local organizations and a GoFundMe he set up for them, but he worries it won’t be enough to make up for the loss in his brother’s income for his widow and the couple’s five children in the long run.
We know there are many Maine families and frontline workers who are facing a very difficult holiday season without their loved ones. If you are able, please considerdonating to the Lewiston Solidarity Fund to support these workers and their families.
Funds will be directed by a committee of Maine union leaders and the Maine AFL-CIO, and managed by Food AND Medicine, a unionized nonprofit worker center in Brewer that works closely with the Eastern Maine Labor Council.
You can also send a check to:
Food AND Medicine, 20 Ivers Street, Brewer, ME 04412. Write Lewiston Solidarity in the memo line or include a note with the check.