Pulse foundation seeking answers for club’s future in survey
Should the site of Pulse nightclub become a “gathering space to celebrate love and life” or a place to mourn? Should it enlighten visitors about hate crimes or speak to the evils of terrorism?
And should its current bulletridden walls be demolished or preserved?
Those are some of the difficult questions being asked in a survey by the onePulse Foundation, the nonprofit launched by the nightclub’s owner Barbara Poma, in the group’s first step toward determining the club’s fate.
“At the end of the day, what we want is the best of the best, something reverent and thought-provoking, something scholars will come and study,” said Orlando attorney Earl Crittenden Jr., chairman of the foundation’s board of
trustees. “But this is a process. Most importantly, we want to know: How do you want to feel there?”
The club, a landmark for Central Florida’s gay community, was holding its weekly Latin-themed night June 12, 2016, when gunman Omar Mateen opened fire on the crowd. He killed 49 people, wounded 68 others and terrorized nearly 200 more who fled or hid in the darkness, sometimes under fallen bodies.
It was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history by a single gunman.
The online survey was first sent to victims’ family members in mid-August. A week later, it went to survivors, followed by police, rescue workers and healthcare providers who aided the victims. Last week, it was opened to the public at onepulsefoundation.org, where it will be available through Oct. 31.
“We look at this as a global project,” Crittenden said. “When I go to the site with Barbara [Poma], we see people visiting from all over the world. We see families out there. I see the parents discussing it with their children, educating them.”
Public emotion is likely to run deep, he acknowledged, especially on the question of whether to tear down the current structure or transform it.
For Brandon Wolf, 29, a survivor who lost close friends in the attack, there’s no simple answer.
“For me, it’s important that it be a place to grieve and mourn and remember the victims,” he said. “When I go back there now, it’s not because I feel an attachment to the building itself, but because it was the last place I saw these people I loved.”
Wolf, who recently moved to Tallahassee, said he has already taken the survey.
“What I loved about it is that it specifically asked what emotions you want to feel there,” he said — from hope to courage, solace, sadness and anger.
Poma initially considered selling the South Orange Avenue site to the city of Orlando, which offered $2.25 million. But in early December, she changed her mind, saying she couldn’t bring herself to walk away from the club she had founded in memory of her brother, who died in 1991.
Poma, who not available for comment, has long said she wanted a memorial at the site. The foundation she launched, which also raised money for club employees who lost their jobs, created the board of trustees in May. Among its members are Walt Disney World President George Kalogridis, singer Lance Bass and former NBA center Jason Collins, the league’s first openly gay player.
Though the memorial’s cost is still unknown, trustees are faced with raising at least several million dollars in the coming years to cover planning, construction and maintenance, with a goal of opening the memorial in 2020.
The project also has a growing advisory panel that includes several family members of the dead, as well as survivors of the attack.
Survivor Francisco Pabon, 23, said he wants the memorial to evoke happiness — despite the fact that seven of his friends were killed there.
“I don’t think they need to talk about terrorism or hate crimes. I think everybody knows what happened,” he said. “But this was a place for happiness, a place where people went to have fun together. I like how people have had signs that ‘Love Wins’ or ‘Love Conquers Hate.’ For me, that’s perfect.”
Still, he’s uncertain if he’ll be able to bring himself to go inside.
The survey includes a question on design options — specifically, whether the memorial should have a park, statues, an education center or a wall inscribed with the victims’ names. A museum is also planned for the property, though whether it will include meeting space depends on public feedback, Crittenden said.
Already, the foundation has sought input from officials with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City and the Oklahoma City National Memorial, site of a 1995 domestic terrorism attack that killed 168 people. Representatives of those memorials will speak at a onePulse town hall forum 6 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Orlando Repertory Theater. (Admission is free, but tickets are required and available through Eventbrite.com.)
Three more forums are planned in 2018, with dates to be announced. Though it may seem to some like a slow timetable, Crittenden said it’s important to proceed thoughtfully.
“I want to get to a point where we don’t have to keep asking the same question,” he said: “Why all this hate?”