With news of racist graffiti, harassment, violence and other hate crimes cropping up around the country after the presidential election, some Redmond-area residents decided to get together to send a different message.

In response, Stephanie Monk wanted to give people the opportunity to come together to show their solidarity in the community. She organized a candlelight vigil, which was held last Saturday on the steps of Redmond City Hall.

Monk said Redmond is such a diverse community, with people from different backgrounds, so she wanted to do something to show that they do not support hateful rhetoric. Monk added that there had been demonstrations and other instances in which people practiced their right to free speech in Seattle and she felt something needed to be done on the Eastside.

The Candlelight Vigil for Progress lasted about 90 minutes, with people coming and going throughout the evening. The event brought about 60 people and Monk said at one point, they had about 40 people in attendance at once.

“It was great,” said Monk, who has lived in Redmond for about 12 years.

She added that she was also happy with the attendance numbers because it was Thanksgiving weekend and many people were probably out of town.

She spread the word about the vigil through a Facebook event page (tinyurl.com/hfq445x), inviting her friends, who invited their friends as well. Monk said on the day of the event, there were a lot of people she didn’t know and she met a lot of new people in the community, “which was great to see.”

She added that it was a pretty diverse group of people in attendance as well.

“It wasn’t all white people, which I was happy to see,” Monk said.

According to the Facebook page, the vigil was an opportunity to show children, by example, that people have a constitutional right to assemble peacefully. All were welcome to the family friendly event and Monk said it was great to see people bring their kids. And as it was a vigil, people were encouraged to bring a candle or lantern to be lit that night.

At the event, Monk said they discussed what had been going on around the country as well as in their own back yard as the front sign at the Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS) in Redmond was vandalized on Nov. 21. In these discussions, she said people talked about how they could show the mosque their support and that those actions do not reflect the community.

The event also focused on the actions people can take moving forward, such as calling their local representatives and or senators. Monk said there are also upcoming events people can attend to get more involved.

“There’s a hunger out there,” she said about people wanting to get involved.

She is currently working on compiling a list of things people can do to take action and will post it on the vigil’s Facebook page.

Monk said she knows the country is not filled with hate and intolerance and she wants to show that by empowering people with tools to make that known.