Chris Singleton can empathize with the Western New York community still grieving the loss of 10 people and the wounding of three more after the racism-motivated shooting at Tops supermarket May 14. Singleton lost his mother during a mass shooting at a church in South Carolina in 2015, which, too, was motivated by racism.
But Singleton, the former pro baseball player turned author, is in Western New York to tell school children that unity is stronger than hate. He visited Cleveland Hill Elementary School Thursday morning.
“Everybody grieves differently,” he said. “For me forgiveness was a huge part of my grieving process but for others, even a kid this morning, just coming back to his new normal coming to school, not having his grandma anymore and he was just affected by it. The fact that he got to do the announcements to give his kindness message for the day, you know, stuff like that goes a long way we just, you know, went through something tragic.”
Singleton is also promoting his children’s book, Different, which is dedicated to his mother.
“Over the last six years I've been traveling to a lot of school districts talking to older kids and adults,” he said. “But I felt like my story was too sad to speak to kids and that's where this children's book came into play different story about loving your neighbor.”
Singleton is also visiting schools in the Buffalo Public School District and will be giving similar talks in Texas following this week’s shooting in Uvalde.
