ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The Pulse Advisory Committee met again Wednesday evening to push the conversation forward about the future Pulse Memorial.
The committee consists of survivors, victims’ families and community stakeholders.
After listening to concerns at the previous meeting, the committee made time for others to sit before them and share their ideas for the memorial.
One survivor who participated in the listening session was Stephanie Kersten.
“I love being able to have a say so as a survivor, (but) we were not the ones that were lost,” Kersten said.
She feels like the focus of the memorial should be on the 49 lives lost, and their families’ input holds a lot of weight.
Kersten also shared how she believes it should be designed.
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“I strongly believe the architectural design of the building should offer separate rooms because some people are going to want to go there for separate reasons,” Kersten said.
Robert Pressley is the son of a victim and the brother of a survivor.
He was asked by a committee member how he would like his mother to be remembered at the memorial.
“Something that will honor her and celebrate her life,” Pressley said.
Committee member and survivor Tommy Connelly asked where victims’ families stand on whether the Pulse nightclub building should stay or be torn down.
He also asked whether first responders should be acknowledged in the memorial.
“...It is a polarizing thing because for some survivors, those first responders were their first responders, but on the other side of things, they could have saved others,” Connelly said.
Opinions were split on that matter.
“The first responders — honestly you get paid for that,” a victim’s family member, Jessenia Marquez, said. “I don’t feel that you should be part of that decision.”
Although Kersten said it bothers her that first responders didn’t come in to help as quickly as they should have, she is not opposed to them being recognized in the memorial.
“We must understand that some of those people were just following the orders of the others, some of those first responders were affected as well,” Kersten said.
Who should have say in the memorial’s design was a point of contention during the meeting.
One committee member chimed in virtually, requesting that everyone trust them to get this done right.
“All we really want is y’all insight on what y’all would like this to look like. We don’t need everybody coming here, trying to tell us to get off the committee,” the committee member said.
The committee is still trying to figure out if the memorial will be a tribute to the 49 victims alone or both the victims and survivors.
They will meet again Thursday at Orlando City Hall starting at 4 p.m.
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