Erie High School senior Kayla Desousa saw gun control activist Emma González at an Aurora park Thursday evening and burst into tears.

The 17-year-old Erie student couldn’t believe she was meeting the young, passionate advocates who had survived the February high school massacre in Parkland, Fla.

“Seeing them smiling after what they’ve been through just made me start sobbing,” Desousa said. “They’re helping teens wake up and learn about gun violence. We just want to learn, and now we have to think about where to escape in case a shooter comes.”

The tearful meeting at Del Mar Park was made possible by the national student-led gun control advocacy organization March For Our Lives. The group’s Road to Change cross-country tour made two Colorado stops in cities all too familiar with gun violence: Aurora and Littleton.

One main goal of the tour: registering young voters. Attendees also hoped gathering those impacted by gun violence could instigate healing.

“The two communities we’re going to,” said Chris Grady, a recent graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, “have similar experiences to my community. They both have had mass shootings. We feel it’s very important to meet with them and really connect. We all share this trauma we have through gun violence, so it’s important we all connect with one another.”

Tom Mauser has been advocating for gun control since his son, Daniel, was shot to death in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Watching young people in Colorado and beyond rise up and rally has made him the most hopeful he’s been in 19 years.

“We need new warriors,” Mauser said. “I feel like I have put so much into this for all these years. I can’t go on forever doing this, and we need some people with a renewed energy level.”

Gonzales and her peers donned colorful skirts borrowed from performers dancing with Aurora’s Nueva Escuela De Musica. After the school’s culturally rich dancing elicited cheers from the crowd, Parkland students asked for an impromptu dance lesson. March For Our Lives announced a $1,500 donation to help the school attend a dance competition in Pueblo.

The Aurora event included a casual cookout where Parkland students, local gun control groups such as the student-led Never Again Colorado and members of the community joined forces.

Local, young activists such as Evan Davis and Jessica Maher, students behind Never Again Colorado, felt starstruck working alongside leaders of the Parkland movement, including González, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas student survivor whose impassioned speeches have made her one of the faces of gun control.

“We were all just kids going to school, and all of a sudden so many of us have been catapulted into the heart of this huge issue,” said Davis, spokesman for the group.

Friday’s forum at 7 p.m. at Shorter Community AME church is intended to be a more serious discussion among gun violence survivors, activists and the community.

Alongside survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the mother of an Aurora theater shooting victim and a Columbine survivor will be speaking at the church. Mauser, also on the panel, is relieved to see young people leading the charge.

His best advice: Don’t get discouraged quickly.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas graduate Matt Deitsch, 20, had a similar message for his peers during the Aurora visit.

“If you feel helpless in this chaos, do not,” Deitsch said. “At one point in our lives, we all feel helpless. But we can come together and make change. We are standing with you.”