Parkland Shooting Victims Honored by Stoneman Douglas Alumni with Times Square Billboards

Dave Quinn
Updated

The names of the 17 victims of February’s deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were displayed in a series of digital billboards in New York City’s Times Square on Tuesday.

Photos of the billboards were shared by digital sign company Big Sign Message on Twitter.

According to Florida TV station WPLG, Big Sign Message donated the billboards for the memorial free of charge after being approached by Marjory Stoneman Douglas alumni Shane Fedderman and Stacey Goldman, who designed the signs.

“Today we are proud to have helped, even in a small way, the Alumni of #StonemanDouglasHighSchool show these touching thoughts in #TimesSquare for the world to see,” Big Sign Message tweeted. “These messages will be playing all day (March 6th). Stay #MSDSTRONG.”

The signs featured the Stoneman Douglas logo alongside the names of the victims that stretched nearly the entire height of one of Manhattan’s skyscrapers. Images of 17 flying eagles, the school’s mascot, were also on the billboards.

“In loving memory of the 17 lives lost from your alumni across the nation,” read one billboard.

Many alumni shared the photos under the hashtags “#MSDStrong” and “#NeverAgain” — the latter used as a cry for gun-violence prevention.

“Never again will this happen in Parkland. Never again will it happen anywhere. Never again. Join the movement. Be the movement,” read a message on a Twitter account for the cause.

“Sending our love from Times Square today,” wrote the official MSD Alumni account.

Big Sign Message added that they were “proud to have helped, even in a small way.”

RELATED VIDEO: Parkland Survivor Describes Horror of the Massacre

In the wake of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, as students and families grieved and returned to class, many of the teens who attend the school have been speaking out about their experiences and demanding there be changes in gun safety legislation.

As part of a social media initiative called #whatif, photojournalist Jeff Vespa captured some students’ heart-wrenching tales of survival and their determination to create a future free of gun violence — and their powerful words and portraits are featured in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

The teens’ planned “March For Our Lives” in Washington, D.C., on March 24 has expanded to include more than 400 related demonstrations in cities across the globe.