Orlando gives update on Pulse memorial project

The City of Orlando and Mayor Buddy Dyer Tuesday announced updated plans for a Pulse memorial site, commemorating the lives lost and impacted by the 2016 nightclub shootings that killed 49, injured more than 50 and permanently impacted a community.

Plans for the site now include the involvement of a communications liaison, a slate of memorial events, and a goal to select the conceptual design for a memorial by the end of the year.

Communications expert Larry Schooler has been hired to implement an efficient process for communication with victims' families, survivors and other community members in the creation of a permanent memorial at the site.

The city says Schooler has served as a leader in similar projects, including the Virginia Beach 5-31 Memorial Committee and the San Leandro Steven Taylor Sanctity of Life Pavilion project.

The process for creating the memorial will take place in several phases, the city says. The phases will involve interviews with focus groups and important stakeholders to help inform and shape recommendations for the site's development.

Community input will also help inform the process of creating a Memorial Advisory Committee to represent survivors, victims' families and others affected.

In addition to leading efforts in the memorial creation process, the City of Orlando also pledged in December 2023 to continue the Annual Remembrance Ceremony and the CommUnity Rainbow Run, both previously organized by OnePulse.

The Pulse Remembrance Ceremony will be held at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts Wednesday, June 12, at 7 p.m. Before the ceremony, First United Methodist Church Orlando will host the ringing of 49 bells at 4 p.m.
The 8th annual CommUnity Rainbow Run will be held Saturday, June 8. The 4.9K run will begin and end at Wadeview Park, and the route will pass by the Pulse site and Orlando Health.

A letter to the editor from the Pulse Victims and Survivors for Justice last week called the run "distasteful for its disregard of the tragedy's solemnity through rainbow buffoonery, insensitive as runners joyfully retrace the path survivors took while they ran for their lives, and wasteful due to the squandering of resources required to fund this charade."

Net proceeds from the run will benefit the city's new Orlando United Pulse Memorial fund, which exists within the city's Strengthen Orlando nonprofit. Registration for the run is open now.

After years of failed plans surrounding the site, the City of Orlando announced in December it would take over preserving the site's legacy from the defunct OnePulse Foundation.

The city said it would establish a new memorial fund that individuals, businesses and community organizations can donate to in support of the Pulse memorial project, which OnePulse was formed to do seven years ago. With little progress made, and following accusations of foundation executives profiting from victims' pain, OnePulse dissolved earlier this year.

In another recent blow to the community, the defunct OnePulse Foundation has left Orange County taxpayers saddled with covering the cost of an unpaid property tax bill — which Orange County leaders begrudgingly agreed to cover in March.

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