LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The Vegas Strong Fund, advocates, survivors, legislators and victims’ families came together and pushed for the Forever One Memorial at the Nevada Legislature in Carson City Thursday.
It was part of their three-year campaign and effort to raise money for the two-acre memorial.
The Forever One Memorial will be a tribute to the 58 victims, survivors and heroes of the 1 October tragedy at the Route 91 Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2017. Nearly 2,500 ticket holders were from across the state. Among the victims, four were from Las Vegas, two were from Henderson, and one was from Reno.
The plan is to build the memorial at the former festival grounds on the Las Vegas Strip. MGM Resorts International donated the land.
“We are forever one,” Chair of the Vegas Strong Fund Tennile Pereria said. “We can shape the narrative of what this is, that the darkness isn’t going to win. That it’s the light and us coming together and being united.”
The memorial also aims to preserve the acts of courage and compassion that came in the tragedy’s aftermath.
Nevada State Senator John Steinbeck, who served as Clark County Fire Chief during 1 October spoke at the ceremony as well as Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff McMahill, Speaker of the Nevada State Assembly Steve Yeager, Nevada State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, survivors, and victims’ family members.
“We wanted to really encapsulate not just the sorrow and the grief that came out of this, but the absolute sheer joy everyone was having before this took place and the resiliency that’s come out of it as part of the collective souls of all these people coming together and trying to make something positive out of this incident,” added Vegas Strong Fund board member, Kelly McMahill.
The design includes what is described as expansive and symbolic lighting features, representing a permanent beacon of light and hope for all affected by the tragedy. Survivors also laid a hand in its design. The memorial incorporates 58 butterflies to honor the 58 people killed, as well as 22 stakes. Each one represents 1,000 survivors for a total of 22,000.
“The Forever One Memorial honors not only those we lost, it reflects the best of who we are, a people who show up for one another, a state that remembers,” said Speaker of the Nevada Assembly Steve Yeager. “Together we’ll ensure this memorial becomes a permanent part of Nevada’s story and its future.”
The Vegas Strong Fund needs to raise $45M in order to open the Forever One Memorial on October 1, 2017 which marks ten years after the tragedy.
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