Volunteers perform acts of kindness in victims’ honor.
Orlando honors Pulse victims with volunteerism
Samantha Fahed wore a bright orange traffic vest and carried a garbage bag as she made her way along Orlando’s Mills Avenue on Tuesday, picking up cigarette butts and scraps of paper in the hot morning sun. There was no glory in the task, but two years after the Pulse nightclub shooting, it was her humble way of paying tribute to the 49 lives lost.
“That place was near and dear to both of us,” she said, gesturing to friend and co-worker Josh Riggs. “We’re both part of the gay community, and Pulse was a place I saw as a safe space. … I’m just trying to make my city a little better in their memory … to create something positive.”
Fahed and Riggs were two of at least 20 volunteers who turned out for a neighborhood clean-up led by the Zebra Coalition — the Central Florida network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. The clean-up, in turn, was part of a movement that has grown out of the tragedy — Acts of Love and Kindness — led by the nonprofit One Orlando Alliance.
For some, it meant donating blood or gently worn clothing. For others, it was packing meals for Head Start students or stocking grocery shelves at United Against Poverty. And still others assembled hygiene kits at Clean the World, the Orlando nonprofit that purifies and recycles soap for distribution around the globe.
The Orlando Magic and Orlando Solar Bears lent staff to volunteer on company time. So too did The Hartford Financial Services Group, Orange County Government and a long list of nonprofits.
“The Pulse tragedy was the darkest day in Orlando’s history, yet hate did not win,” said Jennifer Foster, chair of the board of the One Orlando Alliance. “Our community remains stronger and more united than ever before.”
Last year, more than 2,500 people volunteered their time in support of Acts of Love and Kindness, and while there was no official tally yet for this year’s outpouring, it seems likely that many will go uncounted.
Artist Andrew Spear, for instance, made no proclamation of his deed. He happened to be driving by the mural of 49 birds he created two years ago on an otherwise gray wall near the intersection of Mills and Colonial Tuesday morning when, he said, he noticed the rainbow hues of the birds looked a little dim.
“I just got back in town last night, I’m out this morning getting a breakfast sandwich, and I have all my stuff in my car when I see it,” Spear said of his painting. “I thought, ‘OK, I’ll just do it.’”
Two and a half hours later, he finally got a chance to eat his sandwich.
A few miles away, at the First United Methodist Church of Orlando, the women’s Bible study group gave pinwheels, each with the name of one of the 49, to the victims’ families, who gathered for a belltolling ceremony.
“We just want to embrace the families with all the comfort and love we can,” said church member Phyllis Stopford. “And we want to promote peace in our world. I think with everything that’s happening today, we need it.”
At noon, some 200 or so officials, family members, churchgoers and others stood somberly in a breezeway as the names of the 49 were read amid the tolling. Across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, in Canada and Ecuador, some 148 other churches, temples, synagogues, mosques, universities and businesses tolled their bells, too.
Mayra Alvear, whose 25-year-old daughter, Amanda, was among those killed at Pulse, came dressed in white to give hugs to strangers in the crowd, thanking them for coming and spreading love. Then she and Maria Wright, who lost her son, Jerry, in the shooting, alternated reading the names of the 49, their voices trembling as they came to the names of their children.
“I know all of you next year will have your place of worship join us in this movement,” Alvear told the crowd at the end. “God bless you. Don’t let hate win.”