Cross Man’s mission has different look, but same goal
Northbrook-based Lutheran Charities has taken over memorial task
Sue Zanis didn’t even know there had been yet another mass shooting in this country Monday afternoon, as she doesn’t pay all that much attention to the news these days.
That job was always left to her husband Greg, who not only would learn of these tragedies from the media, he’d frequently be contacted by authorities where the massacres occurred, asking for help in dealing with such unspeakable grief by delivering a truckload of his hand-made wooden crosses.
By now, the Cross Man from Aurora would likely have already delivered eight to Atlanta for the victims who were slain there last week. He would have returned home immediately only to hit the road again on Tuesday, this time heading west to the Rockies — a familiar trip to Zanis, who first burst upon the national scene in 1999 after the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado — where another 10 victims were gunned down inside a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store.
But when Greg Zanis lost his battle to cancer last spring, the Crosses for Losses ministry he began in 1996 when Sue’s father was murdered had to take a different road if it was to continue.
As you probably noticed, the row of white wooden crosses that have become such a compelling visual symbol of this country’s epidemic of mass shootings was on display at the most recent mass shooting site in Boulder. Ten of them. Only they looked different from those we had become used to seeing in the immediate aftermaths of these countless American tragedies.
That’s because the Northbrook-based Lutheran Church Charities agreed to take over the cross mission after Greg Zanis retired in December 2019.
Zanis made that difficult decision following back-to-back trips to mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton Ohio, unaware his terminal disease likely was contributing to the fatigue he was experiencing.
But he knew he was putting his beloved ministry into good hands: He’d been working closely with this Lutheran organization since 2008, which is when the nonprofit began providing comfort dogs to the grieving, including at mass shootings.
And yes, some of their 130 trained dogs were in Aurora two years ago when five workers lost their lives during the mass shooting at Henry Pratt Co.
According to President Tim Hetzner, of Lutheran Church Charities, after Zanis turned over a handwritten letter of permission and his cellphone to the group soon after he announced his retirement on CNN, the requests for crosses immediately began coming in, although Boulder was the first mass shooting site that displayed the Lutheran charity crosses.
Unlike Zanis, this organization delivers its services only when requested. “Had we gotten a call from Atlanta,” he said of the shootings the previous week, “we would have been there too.”
This mission, called Hearts of Mercy and Compassion/Crosses for Losses, has affiliates all across the country, which is what Zanis, who made every single white memorial from beginning to end, always told me was needed in order for the supply to keep up with the demand.
These new crosses are similar to those he created. But instead of red hearts in the
middle — decorated by art students from Christian Covenant School in Aurora — the new version features blue hearts at the center with a “fish” symbolizing Jesus that, because it’s placed horizontally, can represent a ribbon for victims who are not Christians.
Hetzner says his group is not only honored to carry on the Crosses for Losses ministry but excited that the work Zanis was so passionate about can be expanded. It will never be quite the same, however, even he admits, because as anyone knows who ever worked with Greg Zanis, he truly was one of a kind.
“The reality is,” said the Rev. Dan Haas, who has led hundreds of prayer vigils for Aurora area murder victims over the past two decades and helped his friend deliver truckloads of crosses, “I don’t think there will ever be another movement” like the one-man show Greg Zanis produced, directed and starred in for two decades.
“There was something about Greg and what he represented,” Haas said. “No one else could do what he did, sleeping in his car, eating out of cans, driving on fumes. And just the amount of time away from home ... I’m not sure that could ever be replicated.”
Which is probably for the better. Crosses for Losses was a huge cost to Greg Zanis, not just financially but physically and emotionally, as I’ve written about many times in my two decades covering this
man. And certainly it was a sacrifice for his family, especially his wife, who may not pay much attention to the news these days but is aware of the emptiness in her heart. And the vacancy in the garage.
Once filled with hundreds of crosses, including some originals taken out to Colorado after the Columbine shooting, the workshop is a reminder of all that her husband accomplished and all that was lost when he died.
“My heart cries over Greg’s absence,” Sue told me. And yes, she regrets not spending more time with him in that building next to their home that became the epicenter of his mission.
“He was torn,” she said, referring to the time spent away from her and their family, as his truck ate up 800,000 miles of road delivering 27,770 white memorials across this country.
“One thing Greg would do, he’d come in, drop off the crosses and leave immediately,” Hetzner said. “We stay longer to try and help with all the emotions people are experiencing.”
More than ever, he said, “people are hurting,” with police departments in crisis, suicides up and more mental illness pushing so many to the edge.
“Unfortunately, we are only going to be seeing more of this kind of thing,” Hetzner said.