Hundreds attended the first of a series of town halls sponsored by the onePULSE Foundation at the Orlando Repertory Theater Monday night, to discuss creating a permanent memorial and museum at Pulse Nightclub.
- First town hall for Pulse Memorial held in Orlando
- Panelists included officials from memorials around the country
- onePulse Foundation won't begin planning until survey results come back
- RELATED: Temporary Pulse memorial approved by city of Orlando
The foundation gathered experts in creating memorials from around the country to help the public understand what should go into such a project.
Jan Ramirez serves as the Chief Curator of the National September 11th Memorial & Museum in New York City.
“I think this is very important, in New York, you’re actually in the authentic site. We try to get out of the way of that authenticity. You are in the wound hole of what had been a 16-acre landmark," Ramirez said.
Panelists say it's important to capture the immediate emotion felt by the greater Orlando and LGBT community on and right after June 12.
“Just remembering that you want to have that same sense of community and unity you had in the hours and days, following the attack,” said Kari Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, it took about five years to open a privately-run permanent memorial and museum.
“The days are long and the years are even longer but together you as a community can get there," Watkins shared.
“Pulse had a very rich history. It was a home for so many people. So we collected items that didn’t show signs of the event and also items that did show signs of the event," shared Pamela Schwartz, Chief Curator of the Orange County Regional History Center.
"The sink from where they pushed the air conditioner out and tried to crawl out. We collected those type of things," Schwartz added.
With so many people who care about what happens next at Pulse, patience, empathy and compassion will be needed for years to come in Orlando.
“But they leave inspired and hopeful," said Anthony Gardner, the senior vice president for government and community affairs for The National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Panelists agreed that the goal of the Pulse memorial and museum should be to help prevent another tragedy like this one from ever happening again.
The onePULSE Foundation will not begin talking about the design and construction phase of the permanent memorial and museum until they've reviewed the results of a public memorial survey.
That survey is available online through Oct. 31.