YOUNGSTOWN — Julia Madera vividly recalled an incident about a year ago in which a gun was held to her mother’s head.

The violent act naturally traumatized her. But it also inspired her.

“A lot of people see but don’t speak about the emotional impact of gun violence,” Madera, a Youngstown Rayen Early College senior, said.

Madera, however, spoke about the occurrence through a piece of artwork she created, titled “Put Down the Guns,” a watercolor creation that captures the scourge of gun violence as seen through the eyes of someone watching it live.

Her art also was one of 12 pieces, along with 12 poems, Youngstown City School students in kindergarten through grade 12 created during October’s Nonviolence Week that were selected to be on notecards that can be bought. On one side of each card is artwork and on the other is a poem — all of which convey themes related to nonviolence, Penny Wells, Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past’s executive director, noted.

For their works, the students were recognized and honored during a reception Tuesday afternoon at the YWCA of Youngstown, 25 W. Rayen Ave.

Madera, who also is serving in the U.S. Army, submitted two pieces for the contest, she said, adding that art is another one of her passions.

“I wanted to have red flowers because red symbolizes fiery emotions, but I wanted a peaceful, serene tone,” Lil Snider, 16, a Chaney High School junior, said about the thrust behind creating her untitled piece of art.

As a whole, her painting captures the importance of maintaining peace via a series of butterflies and flowers, along with a young woman in a white dress. Another goal of hers was to transform the color red — which often connotes blood, anger and other negative associations — into something that encapsulates peace and harmony, Snider said.

During Tuesday’s reception, each student’s piece of art was shown on a screen, and their poems were read aloud.

One such poem, titled “A Change within You,” was from Sophia Kent, a YREC Middle School fifth-grader. It reads in part: “Violence isn’t right. It’s not cool, nor fun, nor the right thing to do. Are we on the same page? Do you believe that too?”

The contest had more than 100 art and about 30 poetry entries, from which 12 were selected from each category, Wells noted. The boxes of 12 notecards on which the entries will be placed are $15 apiece, she said.

To obtain a box of notecards, email Wells at pennywwells@sbcglobal.net.

Ohio Nonviolence Week begins locally the first Sunday in October with a peaceful parade through downtown Youngstown and rally, both of which Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past hosts, to call attention to the importance of rejecting violence and honoring those who have been victims. Other activities include the Simeon Booker Award for Courage, along with artwork, poetry and a five-day reading challenge.

Over the years, the occasion also has brought several civil rights luminaries to the Mahoning Valley, including Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of nine black students who integrated the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957; Joann Bland of Selma, Alabama, a U.S. Army veteran who was on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965, a day, known as “Bloody Sunday;” and the late Georgia congressman John Lewis, who also penned the 1999 bestselling book “Walking with the Wind,” which is one of Sojourn to the Past students’ textbooks.

In 2023, Wells was inducted into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame in Columbus for her work.