ORLANDO, Fla. – The city of Orlando is taking its first steps toward a memorial for the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, according to the final letter from onePULSE Foundation.
The foundation, which announced its dissolution last month, sent one final email to supporters to explain what the city was doing moving forward.
The city will be establishing a new fund for the memorial, called the Orlando United Pulse Memorial Fund, and it wants to involve survivors and victim’s families in the process.
“The City of Orlando is finalizing a process for engaging and communicating with victims’ families, survivors and first responders as part of this process,” the foundation’s email said.
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The city will also lead the efforts for next year’s annual remembrance ceremony and the CommUNITY Rainbow Run, in partnership with the UCF DeVos Sport Business Management Program. 2024 will mark 8 years since the shooting, which took the lives of 49 people and injured dozens more.
This last year has seen efforts to honor the victims with a permanent memorial and museum fall apart, as inner turmoil within the onePULSE Foundation became more public.
Founder and Pulse nightclub co-owner Barbara Poma left the group, and the Pulse memorial site was left in limbo amid a disagreement over whether to donate the property to the foundation.
Then in October, the city announced it would buy the Pulse site to move forward on a memorial. Not long after, onePULSE canceled the plans for a nearby museum and announced that that piece of land would go to Orange County, since onePULSE used tourism development tax revenue to purchase that property.
Both county and city leaders have expressed frustration with the dissolution of onePULSE and its original plans. Some county commissioners have called for an independent audit.
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