Ms. Bridgeford started up a Facebook chat with Ogun, the hip-hop artist who had originally suggested the ceasefire when the two were working on the 300 Man March, and a few other veterans of Baltimore's anti-violence efforts. From there, a grassroots movement was born. The first Ceasefire weekend, in August, brought thousands of people out to call for an end to the killings, and a second event in November was even bigger. Neither achieved their stated goal — both weekends saw killings — but the movement has produced something greater and more lasting. It made a city benumbed by violence feel once again the terrible loss of years of murders and shootings. It awakened a sense that the cycle of killing can be broken and that the power to do it lies in our own hands. For bringing hope to Baltimore in some of its bleakest hours, Erricka Bridgeford is The Sun's 2017 Marylander of the Year.