Pam Schwartz the Director or the Orange County Regional History Center and Jeremy Hileman who is in charge of the One Orlando Collection gave a Lunch and Learn talk about the collection that was build after the Pulse Nightclub shooting.
The shooting happened at about 2AM on June 12, 2016 killing 49 people at the Pulse Nightclub, and injuring about 68 others. The survivors have to live with the horrific memories.
The History Center has to decide what their roll would be in the community following the massacre. Pam immediately drafted a 5 page collection plan. Within a week, the museum became the collection entity following the tragedy.
Six years later, the collection is still growing. It has some 12,000 plus objects, oral histories, and terabits of video and photography. Some of the items predate the tragedy some are of the tragic event itself and some are of the love and support that followed and spread worldwide.
Many of the items in the collection are from the spontaneous memorials that cropped up following the shooting. People place items to try and replace the loss by giving. They don’t think what may eventually become of what was left behind. The History Center didn’t want to have that love and support just go away. There was no manual on how collect following a tragedy. The History Center collected for 32 days straight.
White crosses were donated by Greg Zanis, a midwestern carpenter, (now deceased) who brought crosses to a number of sites of mass tragedy. Memorial items were left on and around the crosses. The crosses were saved and put in special storage boxes and the items left behind were stored in a box for that individual whose name was on the cross. The Orange County Regional History Center will host the Pulse memorial crosses from Friday, June 10, 2022 through Sunday, June 12, 2022 in honor of the 49 and all others impacted. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.