As Orlando continues to grieve and begins to heal after the Pulse nightclub attack, city leaders are in the early stages of discussing a permanent Pulse memorial site.

  • Memorials for the Pulse victims continue to grow
  • City of Orlando working on how to archive the many mementos, build a permanent memorial

"I think it's an amazing thing that we have people from all over the world that want to do memorials for the victims of the Pulse tragedy,” said Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan, who represents District 4.

City leaders know the temporary memorial at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts will eventually be removed, so they want to create a place to remember the victims and to display one-of-a-kind items like an Aloha lei from Hawaii.

"There's only one word I can express, is the blessings that the lei of Aloha that we represented bringing over from the islands touched a lot of people,” said Leahua Kekahuna, who is a Kumu.

Kekahuna explained that a Kumu is a Hawaiian Culture Teacher.

Volunteers from Hawaii said nothing was going to stop them from showing support and delivering their one of a kind, handmade lei.

"It was a long 11 hours, almost 12 hours but we made it and nothing would have stopped us,” Kekahuna explained.

"I think this is just one more example of how love conquers evil,” Sheehan said.

"We're working with the gay/lesbian bi-sexual transgender community center," Sheehan said. "They have a history group that codifies gay and lesbian history and they're going to be working with us, deciding what we're going to give to the families, what we're going to keep in the (Orange County Regional) History Center.”

Commissioner Sheehan, who is the first openly-gay elected official in Central Florida, is helping take the lead.

Sheehan shared that architects from across the country are interested in building a public memorial for the victims of the Pulse massacre.

"The American Institute of Architects is actually having their annual conference here next year and they've talked about wanting to make that their project. I guess when they come to a city, they do a big project and they want to do some kind of memorial, which I think is amazing,” Sheehan said.

"I don't know how soon but I think that's a wonderful idea and especially continuing to never forget,” said Orlando City Commissioner Samuel B. Ings, who represents District 6.

Any permanent public memorial would have to be approved by the Orlando City Council.

"I'm hoping I would get unanimous city council approval for something like that,” Sheehan said.