After Pulse: Zebra Coalition

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Heather Wilke is the director at Zebra Coalition. After the Pulse nightclub massacre the Zebra Coalition provided significant services for the LGBT community. Zebra assists LGBT youth. Heather was at Zebra for about a year and experienced an exciting year of growth and then Pulse happened. Things turned for the entire community. Zebra was suddenly in the spotlight. Everyone was in crisis. For two weeks media was swarming everywhere. As the director she kept getting calls from media for at least six months.

The night before the shooting Heather went to bed at 9pm. She announced on Facebook that she was putting her eye mask on and turning the phone off. With a small child, sleep becomes precious. It was 6 am when she got up and first looked at her phone. She checked on family and friends and then the Zebra kids and staff. Everyone she contacted was fine.

She went to the Center at 8:30am. There was a press conference with LGBT leaders at 10am. That evening there was supposed to be a dinner with friends. That went on hold. The day was a blur of response and reactions. Everyone was in crisis mode. The streets were blocked off in every direction down by Pulse and media was swarming. Police had to redirect traffic on Mills because of the Center across the street. At the Center board members were scrambling to figure out what could be done.

The Center was packed. People needed a community. They needed to physically be around people and have a place to gather. The Center became that. It was a beautiful thing to witness.  Security came out to figure out who could go in. People brought food. Overflow supplies went to the Zebra Coalition.

The Zebra Coalition put everything aside and responded to the community needs. They responded to survivors, youth that were in the club at the time of the shooting. Zebra became the hotline for two weeks. They already had a 24 hour hotline that then was directed towards the crisis. Mental heath counselors in the community all stepped up. All the volunteers were organized. People rotated through Zebra. Counselors came in for 3 to 4 hour shifts 24 hour a day. Many of the calls were not from youth but instead from people who wanted to help.

People started bringing water to the coalition. They had water from floor to ceiling in the back room. Startbucks came by every day with coffee. Universal Studios brought lunch every day. Church groups and school groups came by delivering trinkets. At one point all the windows at Zebra were full of art. One group delivered rainbows so there were rainbows everywhere. Therapists made “You Matter” cards. The school of holistic medicine brought by essential oils.

After several weeks the Orlando United Assistance Center (OUAC) took over the organizational aspects of donations and distribution. Zebra went back to business as usual with a different lens. They were always supporting youth in crisis, but now they had this trauma lens. Youth felt unsafe. It was about a week before many regulars started coming back. They were scared, they didn’t want to leave their houses. When they already had anxiety and depression issues, they wanted to get them back to actively engage with them. That fear lingers. The past Pride, people didn’t want to go into massive group gatherings. People felt they have a target on them.

Zebra did work with several youth who were in the club at the time of the shooting. Noises can trigger the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). One youth didn’t reach out for help until six months later. For the most part however, OUAC handled survivors and families of the victims.

For six months Heather was working in non stop crisis mode. After six months she finally got some time to decompress and the enormity of what had happened sank in.

 

 

 

After Pulse: Benjamin Lehnertz

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Father Benjamin Lehnertz is a Roman Catholic priest of the diocese of Orlando. On Sunday June 12, 2016, he had finished his first mass, and parishioners were gathered in the narthex. They asked him if he had heard about the shooting at Pulse. This was the first he heard about it. That was about 25 minutes from where he lived. He visits people in the hospital right down the street from the nightclub. That hit close to home.

He then got a text from his brother who lives in Australia. Early in the day, the numbers were about 15 to 20 people dead, That number climbed through the day. It kept getting worst and worst. More details came from people throughout the morning as the 12:15 mass approached. The heaviness of it descended on the parish.

Benjamin lived in Colorado when Columbine happened. He was in middle school. He had learned how to brace for the news of a mass shooting. He thought to himself, “we are not going to let them make us scared.”

By the afternoon he was seated with this mother, and stepfather. he felt powerless and shell shocked. What could he do to help? A deacon called, and said, they needed Spanish speaking ministers. Benjamin knows enough Spanish to get by, he holds mass in Spanish, he can read Spanish.

So he and his parents went down to the Hampton Inn. They both have crisis management expertise in their backgrounds. There was a sea of people, many traumatized. Family were trying to find where their loved ones were. It is always better to know what you are dealing with. Questions weigh on people. That was a very unique scenario to walk into. It is not a scene he would ever want to revisit.

Organizationally it was a nightmare. There were plenty of counselors and plenty of ministers, deacons and priests. There were some confirmed deaths, and they were trying to notify family members. Someone was coordinating clergy. He had been to hospitals so he was familiar with breaking such news to family. It was a very slow process. The family would need to be identified and the brought to a room in the hotel where the news was forwarded. They would react as they needed.

Clergy huddled in the hallway. If the family had a catholic background then someone would come out and ask, “Can you come and be with us?” Over the course of three hours they saw like 3 families. He decided that waiting in the hallway was a waist of time so he went downstairs to see if people needed to talk. He sat with people who were crying or alone. His was there to listen and offer pastoral support. His parents did the same, they found one person and talked to them.

Late in the day he had to get back to the church for the evening mass. He left his car with his parents and had the deacon drive him back. The evenings homily was very different than the morning homily. The church was packed that night. He spoke from the heart. He asked all to pray for the families. For the first time he put his head in his hands and sobbed.

After mass his mom had driven back from the Hampton Inn. She hugged him an cried. She said, “Ben, it was so awful.” The room was full of people who had not been notified at the end of the day. Someone in a uniform stood up on a desk and said, “everyone be quiet and listen closely.” He then he proceeded to read a list of names. No one knew what that list was. Someone would hear their child’s name and they didn’t know weather to panic or be consoled. Chatter drowned out the announcement. People could not hear the names. Finally he announced that the names were people who were injured but survived the shooting. Staff from the hospital were outside. People who heard the name of a loved one were asked to exit the hotel. Hospital staff would give more information.

90% of the people remained in the room. They were told that there was no information about their loved ones. People were told to go to the Beardall Center the next day. Everyone walked out to a wall of news cameras and the worst question of their lives looming in their minds.

After Pulse: Magic

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Alex Martins is the CEO of the Orlando Magic and served as chair of the board of directors for the One Orlando Fund.

On June 12, 2016, his phone started buzzing early in the morning. It was off season for the Magic so there was no reason for all the calls. On those early hours there was a lack of information combined with speculation. Was it a terrorist attack or a mass shooting? There were so many questions. As the news spread beyond Orlando there were notes and calls from family and others from around the country to check and be sure everyone was safe.

There was a vast amount of helicopter activity. As the morning wore on and information came out, the mayor held a press briefing and the significance of what had occurred became a reality. Besides shock, there was anger and concern. He stayed glued to the news coverage.

He reached out to Mayor Dyer to see how the Magic could help. Out of those conversations the request was born for him to chair the One Orlando Fund. On June 17, 2016 the fund to help the victims was announced. There were more questions than details but there was forward momentum to help.

The Magic made a significant donation to the one Orlando Fund. That is the one area where they could assist the most. He had to learn how these victims relief funds had been dealt with in other tragedies. Getting the counsel of Ken Feinberg who had experience in handling this before was one of the best decisions the Mayor made to get the One Orlando Fund on track.

There was representation from the largest downers as well as from the LGBT community and Hispanic community. Who would best be served by the funds? Would the funds be for the victims who were in the Pulse Nightclub or the business down the street that got shut down for weeks? Every board member had a voice. There was much debate. The board decided to disperse the funds only to the victims in several different categories based on injuries or death and the victim’s families of those who were killed.

The approval process had to be vetted. Proof had to be provided through the FBI and the local authorities that the victims were at the Pulse nightclub that night. These types of tragedies also bring out the worst in people. There have been fraudulent activities in victim compensation funds in other cities. the burden of proof had to be there.

Funds were distributed according to a tiered system based on the amount of impact that each applicant had from the tragedy. Families received the largest individual shares. Those in the hospital the longest were the next tier. Time in the hospital would be a proxy for how much would be dispersed.

People needed help. The first disbursement was within 30 days. After that disbursement, funds kept coming in. A second wave of checks went to victims. This tragedy brought our community together in a way that it had never com together before.

After Pulse: Myra Brazell

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Myra Brazell is a social worker. She grew up with in a family that was very service oriented. Her father was in the service and on holiday’s there were always younger airmen who were invited into the home. Her father is a 60 year Mason, and a 50 year Shriner. Those fraternal organizations are very service oriented. Her mother is an Eastern Star affiliated with the masonic family and service oriented. She grew up in the mindset of serving others.

A suicide prevention coordinator position opened in the Orlando Veterans Administration. She started in 2009. She had worked with children earlier in her career and the new position was more intense involving all ages. She now has clients who are children and adults. There is a crisis line so she handles those as well. Originally she had a grant to go into the community with police as a mental health professional to help police decide if someone should be placed on an involuntary psychiatric hold, known as a Baker Act. She would also offer services on the spot to help with a less restrictive environment.

On June 11, 2016, the day before the Pulse Nightclub shooting, she was in Panama City with her grand children. She was driving on I-75 when her phone started blowing up. She works closely with the LGBT program manager. Suicide is a major issue in the LGBT community. She attends the come out with pride walk each year and keeps a table. She attends the trans gender day of remembrance each year. She is also on the directors 50 which is the disaster response team at the VA.

A call that day deployed her to the Beardall Center. She got to the Beardall about 4:30 after her long drive on I-75. Others had been there all day. Inside the center there was controlled chaos. No one group seemed to be in charge. She started walking around and listened. If she heard someone in distress, she would talk to them. She got tissues, got water, cried with people, hugged them. She tried to meet them where they were. No one is going to take the news of this type of disaster well.

About 6:30 they started to do death notifications at homes. She stayed through the night. She rode in the back seat of a police car and drove to homes. She said nothing. Her roll was to watch and provide support.

In one house the man was all alone. He had lost a brother. He kept asking the police man to check with the morgue. He might have seen a white shirt, but was it a white shirt with a pattern? Then he needed to know what the socks looked like. There were four calls to the morgue. The person had already been positively identified with a drivers license in his pocket. They were empathetic, kind and  professional. They understood this man’s need to know. Most of his family was gathered and waiting for more family to fly in from Puerto Rico. They stayed with him for an hour to be sure he was alright.

She went to three notifications that night.

The families banded together. They were there for one another. It was such a privilege to be there.

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like COVID!

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I heard the song,”It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like COVID” and I can’t get it out of my head. Right after the crowds gathered for Thanksgiving, I watched as the hospitalization numbers ticked upwards. Seems like everyone is partying mask less like it is 1999. Everyone seems to be over COVID but COVID continues to spread. It doesn’t matter how many times you have been vaccinated, the virus keeps finding ways to elude the immune system. Repeated infections are resulting in increased risks of fatal outcomes. Rather than boosting immunity repeated infections are destroying the immune response to COVID and other viruses like flu and RSV. Blood clots, heart failures and a huge rise in cases among children should have people concerned but the Who’s in Whoville keep going about their life blissfully unaware, while pressing together in tight crowds for comfort.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Medical Association warn that the surge in RSV, flu and COVID is threatening the upcoming holiday season. Thanksgiving has jump-started a new surge of COVID all across America. For weeks, RSV has been sending lots of babies and young children to emergency rooms and intensive care units. On top of that, Flu hospitalizations doubled in just one week and are at the highest they’ve been this time of year in a decade. When everyone masked up the last several hears and flu literally disappeared. No that all masking and distancing has been abandoned the viruses hare having a field day.

Nearly 9 million flu cases, 70,000 flu hospitalizations and 4,500 flu deaths have already been reported so far this year, including 14 deaths among children. And now COVID looks like it’s surging, too. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says COVID hospitalizations jumped 15 to 20% in just a week, raising fears that deaths could start rising, too.

The simple mitigation measure to keep you and your family safe have never changed, though some have chosen to make your health a political issue. Social distance. Wash your hands a lot. Wear a good fitting KN95 mask, especially around family and friends. Open windows as much as you can, and stay home if you’re sick. And get both a flu shot and one of the new COVID boosters. Most of all, think for yourself, since there is so much misinformation on social media.

 

 

Joseph Patrick, Annie Jane Corr

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Patrick Joseph Corr died before I was born. Annie Jane Farmer-Corr died just 3 years after I was born, so I have no memory of my grandparents. Both of them were born in New York City, Joseph in 1870 and Annie Jane in 1874. Joseph’s family lived on West 25th street and Annie Jane was baptized a block away on West 26th street so it is safe to assume they lived close together in what is now Chelsea, NYC.

In 1898 they got married at St. Charles Borromeo Church, 142 Street and 7th Avenue, New York City. The clergyman was listed as living at 211 West 141 Street which is today the site of the Harlem Cathedral, St. Charles Borromeo. The church where Joseph and Annie Jane were married was sold and the new Cathedral built a block away. I haven’t been able to find out what the original church looked like yet.

The couple moved up to Harlem in NYC on the East side to raise their family. Joseph Patrick Corr supported the family as a plumber. They had 4 children while living in NYC. One son only lived a year. The building was an average five story apartment building four windows wide. Elevated train tracks built of dark iron stood as tall as the building. I imagine the roar would have been deafening as the trains clanked up 8th Avenue in front of their windows. The apartment building no longer stands, having been replaced by a huge public housing  complex. The elevated trains were moved underground.

Between 1905 and 1910 the couple decided to move to Bergen County, New Jersey. By 1918 they were living in Dumont, New Jersey and they stayed in that home for the rest of their lives. They had one more child in the New Jersey suburbs. Their home had raw exposed stonework and a large front porch. The house underwent extensive renovations recently and now sports boring aluminum siding.

I have a childhood memory of watching a July 4th parade from in front of my grandparent’s home. The only thing I remember is that the drums from the marching bands were frighteningly loud. I had to cover my ears.

Annie Jane Farmer-Corr

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Annie Jane Farmer was born in New York City, Manhattan, New York on December 3, 1874. She is my Great-Great Grandmother. I am researching her life now and the best source I have for her birth date is her baptism at Manor Chapel, 348 West 26th Street, New York City. I didn’t sketch this church as part of my 50 oldest churches of NYC, but when I get back to the city I will certainly sketch it since the Chapel is still standing today.

She married my Great-Great Grandfather Joseph Patrick Corr about 1897 according to a 1900 census. I am hoping to find the actual marriage license. They lived in a series of apartments in New York city on 5th Avenue and 8th Avenue before they moved to New Jersey with four children including my Grandfather Francis Henry Corr.

Annie lived in Dumont, New Jersey for the next 54 years. A daughter was born in New Jersey for a total of 5 children.

Annie Jane died February 14, 1964, just 3 years after I was born, so I have no memory of her. Her obituary said she had 4 grandchildren, one of which would be my mother Elvira Mildred Corr-Thorspecken. Annie had 11 great grandchildren, I would rank in that number.

After Pulse: Stephanie Piniero

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Stephanie Piniero works for the Hispanic Federation, Somos Orlando. Stephanie was in Argentina when she hear about the Pulse Nightclub shooting via social media. She got texts asking if she was OK. At 8am she saw that 20 were reported dead. Sadly in America we are used to mass shootings. She stayed glued to her phone all day. At around 11am her host family was watching TV and the Pulse shooting was on every channel.

She had clients and friends who went to Pulse often. Her friends were OK. The updates kept coming. It was like a nightmare that didn’t stop. She had left her job a Zebra Coalition  for the vocational exchange in Argentina. The Zebra Coalition was ground zero for helping in the aftermath of the Pulse massacre. Stephanie was the only Spanish speaking staff at the Coalition so she felt guilty that she wasn’t there to help.

When she got back, the streets around Pulse were still closed off. In the beginning of July a position opened up at Somos Orlando. Two weeks later she was hired. Within a few days she was seeing clients. One Orlando money helped fund the services. Survivors who were able to escape that night had a different application than those who were injured. This happened to a community that was already marginalized. In some cases the main bread winner died that night. So they were a few steps away from loosing everything. Sometimes a basic service was to help get furniture.

One father of a shooting victim wanted a translation of a the autopsy report. The coroners office does not do that, so she translated. He needed to know.

Hispanic Federation has many different advocacy avenues, like LGBT rights, immigration rights, healthcare rights and reproductive rights. Stephanie’s roll has transformed, to work on reproductive rights and reproductive justice, with a focus on abortion rights in Florida.

After Pulse: Michael Farmer

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Michael Farmer work up on June 12, 2016 to a group text message from the CEO of Equality Florida to make sure everyone was alright. The only detail in the text was that there was a shooting. When he got on social media the first thing to pop up on his news feed was live footage from a local news outlet of the scene outside of Pulse Nightclub. The first people in the frame were a friend J.P. Cortez and Drew Leinonen‘s mother. That is when the seriousness of the situation sank in.

Michael was in Sarasota at the time and immediately drove back to Orlando. Back in Orlando Sunday morning he had a conference call with Equality Florida staff. Not everyone got on the call, some were still sleeping. They debriefed and then they started thinking through what roll they could play moving forward to help. They aren’t a direct service agency so they set about to start fundraising. They started a go-fund-me campaign too try and raise $100,000. In the first day they raised over a million dollars. Ultimately 9.5 million dollars was raised. The fundraiser was linked to the email of one of the staff members and she needed to answer all of the questions. The LGBT community was familiar with their work but others were not aware of the organization. There was a lot of scrutiny. The Better Business Borough had to vet them.

They started becoming a clearing house for offerings from people, like someone called and offered bulk burial plots at a Methodist Cemetery. They needed to catalogue all that was being offered and connect with the people that needed it.

They partnered with the National Compassion Fund very early. They helped as the scope grew. The National Compassion Fund responds to the awful tragedies that keep happening in America, they set up fund for each of them. They insure that the victims get all of the money without administrative costs.

He and Ida Eskamani then drove to Jacksonville, because they had a sponsorship event scheduled at 4pm. Despite the chaos they felt a need to stick to the schedule. Once they got there he immediately realized it was a mistake. It was just a two hour event. But it turned into an incredibly emotional event.

There clearly was going to be a large vigil, and there were concerns about safety. The original plan was to hold the vigil at Lake Eola. The Mayor and Police Department didn’t feel that was a safe option. It was becoming a run away train. Equality Florida called the Mayor and tried to get in front of it. That is how the Dr. Phillips Center Vigil came into being. No one could have imagined to many people would show up to that vigil. All this happened in the first 48 hours.

After Pulse: Father Miguel Gonzolez

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Advisory: Please note that this post is about the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12, 2016. It contains sensitive and difficult to read content.

Father Miguel Gonzalez, is the director at Saint James Cathedral in Orlando, Florida. After the Pulse Nightclub massacre Catholic priests, deacons and bishops provided pastoral care and leadership to the Hispanic community and the larger community of Central Florida.

When he heard the news, he was dumbfounded and in shock. New York City might be a target, Columbine in Colorado, but Orlando doesn’t seem like a likely target. Disney might one day be a target, but not Orange Avenue in SODO, Orlando. It was baffling.

The night before there was the murder of the young performer, Christina Grimmie, at the Plaza in Orlando. Father Miguel was a Radio D.J. before priesthood, so that senseless murder hit him particularly hard. He was still dealing with that when Pulse happened.

He had written Christina into his homily that weekend, so now Pulse became another overwhelming component. The driving theme remained, which was, how the power of love transforms. How can the community renounce these acts? How do we raise our families in a loving caring environment? This person was clearly mentally disturbed. How can proper care be provided to keep things like this from happening again.

Between masses he got a phone call from the Holy Family parish in Windermere, asking if he could come to the hotel where families were gathered. They needed bilingual priests, pastors, counselors and social workers. Some of these families were flying in from Puerto Rico. He headed over after the Spanish mass at 12:30pm.

There was a lot of chaos in that hotel. There were also a lot of good people ready to support and help.  Their focus was on the victims and relatives who were hurt by this. He ended up on the 3rd floor, with other ministers from different organizations, families would be brought up and into different rooms where they would break the news from the coroner’s office that the body of their loved one was identified.

You could her the screaming and wailing down the hallway. It was painful to listen to. Prayer was his life preserver to keep focus and keep calm. To pray for them. When the doors opened someone would come into the hall and ask, is anyone her for the Baptist denomination? Then that Baptist minister would enter the room. Or they would ask, is there a priest her, then father Miguel would go into the room.

There was a change of plans and everyone gathered in a big room downstairs. The lobby was jam packed. The media was all over the place outside. The hotel wanted to regain some level of normalcy. Miguel was told to prepare for havoc. Because there were so many people jammed into the lobby, he could not hear what was happening, or how the news broke. Comments trickled through the crowd. The message that made it back to him was that they were going to give the names of families who should report to the hospital. The hope then is that their love one is still alive. The move increased hope.

After the names were read, there were still a lot of families crowded together. They were all told the had to come back the next day. That is when chaos erupted. People wanted to go to Pulse. They wanted to go to their loved one. Where were they? Screaming echoed down the commodores. People grabbed their heads, they held one another and cried and then ran out the front doors of the lobby.

He moved to a side door near the back. They wanted to meet the families out front by walking around through the parking lot. Outside the wall of reporters were waiting, focusing on the mayhem. He mingled among the families, ready to respond and embrace. He needed to be present for the families.

One young man was very upset, frustrated and angry. He saw the collar and he was angry at the god that Miguel served. Where is he? How could he allow this to happen? He vented about this God who does not care. What could be said to not aggravate the situation? He told him about a brutal murder a family member in Puerto Rico to let him know that he at least understood in some the way the pain felt. Some common ground was found. They sat together and the young man brought over his family.

The next day Miguel went to the Senior Center. Families gathered, and slowly families went to the second floor where the news was conveyed. By then families knew that their loved one did not make it, but there was the agony of waiting. He knew a couple of the families. He prayed with them and talked to them.

His parish was opened up as a space for Catholic charities and social workers. In 20 years of priesthood this was the most challenging, and difficult event he ever had to deal with to provide healing hope and care. The healing for survivors would not happen over night. How could life return to normal?