Tribute held at Orange County History Center before crosses honoring victims preserved

ORLANDO, Fla. — For weeks, 49 white crosses made by a Chicago man in memory of the people killed in the June 12 Pulse nightclub attack stood outside Orlando Regional Medical Center.

They were picked up Tuesday morning and moved to the Orange County Regional History Center as part of a continuing effort to preserve memorials established around Orlando in the wake of the shootings.

One of Greg Zanis’ friends was killed in the attack, which spurred him to create the crosses, each with the name of a victim and a red heart.

Special Section: Pulse terror attack

He drove hundreds of miles from Chicago to place them outside the hospital in Orlando.

“My message today is love your neighbor, love your brother,” Zanis said when he dropped off the crosses. “When our country starts showing more love to each other, that’s our only solution.”

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Mayra Alvear, whose daughter was killed in the attack that left 49 dead and 53 injured, helped History Center employees load the crosses into a box van.

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“Everything was done with respect and honor,” said Alvear.

The van had a police motorcycle escort to the History Center.

On Tuesday night, the crosses were put on display outside the center and a brief tribute was held as people lit candles around the crosses.

After 49 seconds of silence, the crowd lifted their candles into the air and prayed.

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“This is very hard, but to see these here is very good, so that the families have the opportunity to grieve,” said Laly Santiago, a cousin of one of the victims.

It is important to preserve the crosses and thousands of other items placed at Pulse nightclub shooting memorials, Dyer said.

“We lost 49 souls that we want to remember forever,” he said.

Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs was at the History Center to receive the crosses.

“We accept them in memory of the 49 souls at Pulse, and these crosses will forever stand in their memories,” she said. “To those that continue to mourn, and I think that you can see here today that we continue to mourn--and to all of those who are struggling to recover, our entire community stands with you.”

The memorial items will be preserved so future generations will not forget what happened on June 12 and how the Orlando community responded to it, History Center museum manager Michael Perkins said.

“It is obviously very significant, and I think that some time in the future we will step back and just realize the momentous nature of this entire event and (how) significant it was to our history,” he said.

Many of memorials and tributes placed at various parts of Orlando have been moved to the history center to be preserved.

Cox Media Group