ORLANDO, Fla. — The Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee reunited its committee members for its second meeting Thursday at the Kia Center in Downtown Orlando.
On Wednesday, the four-hour long meeting gave committee members an opportunity to make their introductions and hit the ground running.
But on Thursday, the meeting was shortened to two hours, leaving another two hours for the community to attend its first open house event from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Discussions surrounding committee members’ aspirations for what the permanent memorial should look like took the lead on Thursday.
Members took the floor one-by-one to address concerns they had regarding the duration of the project and budgetary concerns with respect to the dissolution of the onePULSE Foundation.
Even though the open house event was low in attendance, it still garnered the support of a handful of people from the public to provide input and show their support.
Grant Wright drove all the way from Daytona Beach to bring a 25-lb piece of art that he carved out of concrete and sand as a gift for committee members to use at the site of the future permanent memorial.
Wright comes from a family of artists, and he told Spectrum News 13, “my oldest brother, who’s also an artist, cause it runs in our family, he said that it’s a labor of love because it took a lot.”
He was one of the members of the public to make an appearance at the Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee’s first open house event on July 25 to show his support and appreciation for his community.
“I can put myself in the shoes of the family members that lost their loved ones. In fact, one of the victims, we share the same last name,” Wright said.
Among those present at the open house were city officials, some members from the public, and even some family members who simply wanted to get a sense of how things were advancing with the memorial project.
For members of the LGBTQ+ community like Shawn Bell, who donated to the onePULSE foundation in the past, coming to this event was an opportunity to demonstrate his support and help out in any way he can.
“I’m not one of those ones who wanted to seek restitution, get my money back. I gave in faith, so now this time around I can not only give faith, I can give more time and try to be more involved to stay on top of it,” Bell said.
Before the open house, members of the committee reconvened for the second Pulse Memorial Advisory Committee meeting to lay out their aspirations of what the future memorial should look like.
The day before, Dr. Larry Schooler, who is the lead facilitator of the project, called in experts from other committee meetings across the country that had faced similar tragedies and gone through the experience of shaping a memorial as a result.
Pulse committee members were shown a slideshow featuring different memorials from all over the world, including the 9/11 Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans memorial, to get a better sense of what they want the Pulse memorial to reflect.
Aspirations for the memorial varied from a shared interest in incorporating natural elements into the memorial such as water features, reflecting each member of the community’s cultures through the memorial and giving people a sense of privacy given the location of the building.
Several members agreed that the location of Pulse Nightclub isn’t appealing considering it faces a Dunkin Donuts and is near a busy street.
But members collectively agreed a wall or horseshoe arc of some sort could be ideal to avoid hearing the noise from the city and cars driving by.
The meeting also provided an opportunity for committee members who were both physically and virtually present to address some of their concerns about the project amongst each other.
Concerns surrounding the length of the time for the project and the stain leftover from the onePULSE foundation dissolution remained.
Survivor and committee member, Norman Casiano-Mojica, said “it’s been eight years that we’ve been waiting for a memorial. So it’s a little scary to listen to other people say like ours is about to be built. It’s 10 years into the making, so I feel like that’s where those emotions come from.”
Also, a survivor and committee member, Tommy Connelly, raised concerns surrounding the budget for the project which he fears won’t receive as many donations considering how things panned out with the onePULSE foundation.
“How are we going to even convince people to donate to us because you can’t blame them if they question: ‘Well, I donated last time. Well, why would I donate again this time?’” Connelly said.
However, Schooler says that sharing these concerns with one another is normal and is part of the healing process.
He adds that he’s ready to work on breaching those divides as the community figures out what the memorial will look like once and for all.
“It’s not going to happen in one meeting, but I felt very gratified by the level of cohesion that I was seeing the committee develop. It’s sort of an emerging consensus around what they want this memorial to be,” he explained.
The dates for the upcoming committee meetings were laid out until the end of the year.
Meetings will take place twice a month at the Kia Center from 4 to 8 p.m. Although, the times could be subject to change.
The next two meetings will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 21, and Thursday, Aug. 22.
The following month, meetings will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and Thursday, Sept. 26.
In October, two are set for Monday, Oct. 7, and Tuesday, Oct. 8.
In November, meetings are listed for Wednesday, Nov. 20, and Thursday, Nov. 21.
The last two of the year will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 11, and Thursday, Dec. 12.