‘WE ARE RESILIENT’
Acts of kindness, love mark one-year Pulse anniversary
On what was deemed A Day of Love and Kindness, Deborah Whiteley rose after three hours’ sleep to be an angel.
At events from early Monday morning to early this morning, she joined the Orlando Angel Force — volunteers who spread large, gauzy wings to protect mourners of the 49 killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting one year ago.
“I lost two friends at Pulse,” said Whiteley, 42, during a lull between memorials. “But doing this has been so beautiful. I’ve had so many families hug me and say thank you that I think it was a way I could help heal myself, too.”
Organized by The Center — the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community center of Central Florida — the effort was part of at least 30 opportunities created by nonprofits and volunteers to give people a way to channel their emotions into action.
Hundreds responded — including people who don’t live in Orlando and who never knew the victims.
“We wanted to provide love because, ultimately, that’s what’s going to save people,” said Ryan Allen, cofounder of a nonprofit called Love Must Win. He and four others came from Cincinnati at their own expense to offer hugs to strangers and pass out hearts with individual, handwritten messages of hope.
They had 2,500 hearts in all.
“It has definitely been humbling,” said Allen’s mom, Cathy Goulet, a mental health therapist and volunteer. “You see that every moment is precious, every life is precious. If everyone would just love and accept each other the way they are, this kind of violence would never happen.”
A few blocks away, Theresa Hamann, 49, rolled up her sleeves to donate at OneBlood’s Big Red Bus stationed outside the Orange County administration offices. She had missed a chance after the attack last June 12 — when so many residents volunteered to give blood that donors had to wait in line for hours.
Hamann wanted to make sure she didn’t miss her chance again.
“I didn’t know anyone who died, but I knew people who went to Pulse, and they lost friends,” she said. “I wanted to donate today to honor them and to be a part of a city that has come together. I think Orlando has been an example for the world of what love and unity really mean.”
At noon, families and loved ones gathered at First United Methodist Church of Orlando for 49 Bells — a tolling of church bells around the world organized by some of the families of the 49. They had hoped to enlist 49 churches to participate.
Instead, they got 281 — from Alaska to the United Kingdom, Montreal and Brazil.
“You hurt for your family, you hurt for the other families, and you hurt for the world that lost these good people,” said Maria Wright, one of the organizers, whose 31-year-old son, Jerald “Jerry” Arthur Wright, died in the attack. “But it is comforting knowing that so many people have sent their love.”
As she waited in the midday heat and humidity amid softly weeping mourners and fussy babies, amid hugs and words of condolence, she vowed not to let her son’s death be in vain.
“We have to try to love more to make up for the vacuum these 49 left behind,” she said.
Across town, at the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, a group of Jerry Wright’s former co-workers were doing just that. Nine of the Walt Disney World employees came on their own time to volunteer there, exercising dogs and giving them baths.
Jerry Wright had been an animal lover.
“When I heard about this opportunity, I knew it was perfect,” said Caitlin Van Natta, 30, who helped to organize the effort. “It’s strange, almost, for Jerry not to be here, because this is something I know he would have loved, but I also think he would love that this was how we honored him.” ksantich@ orlandosentinel.com