Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.
Melanie Rollman is the founder of the Facebook group Conway Critters. She offered pet sitting and dog walking to survivors and victims pets in the aftermath of the Pulse massacre.
After the shooting Maleanie’s son started blowing up her phone about 2am with text messages. He works as an EMT clinical tech at ORMC in the emergency room for the overnight shift. The first text said simply: “24 dead.” Another said, “at Pulse there is a huge shooting.” At this point she could hear all the helicopters flying over her home. Then she turned on the TV to see what was happening.
She knew survivors would be taken care of, to the best of everyone’s ability. But then she thought, what about the people who died? They might have animals at home with no one to return home to take care of them. Some of these people might not have extended family. She decided she had to save the animals somehow.
The next afternoon, she put out on Conway Critters and her personal page, that she would need help to bring this about. She s tarted getting calls from everywhere, as far away as California, and Canada. Several others were doing the same thing. There were just 2 animals that no family members would take. Those 2 went with a 5013c rescue organization. The rest were taken in by family or friends.
She turned her attention instead to collecting and providing all the food and supplies that would be needed to take care of the animals. People who took in these animals might not have the supplies needed to take care of them. A friend who owns the Monograph merchant offered her store as a drop off point. Crates, bowls, collars, leashes, food, toys, treats were collected. A local radio station announced the drop off spot. It was incredible. By day of or three the store owner was calling saying trucks were needed.
It got too big. She couldn’t handle it all herself. She had to delegate responsibilities. Blue at the Venue stepped in and took all the supplies at her theater. The venue couldn’t handle all the incoming donations, so they had to obtain a storage space at the a Track Shack on Mills Avenue. Everything was moved from the Venue to the Track Shack space. The entire space was filled up. It was amazing.
The drive lasted about two months.