What to Know
- The process has begun outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as every item will be collected from the memorial made at the school.
- The flowers will be grounded or incinerated and use in the city gardens as fertilizer.
- The items will be stored and preserved with the next time they are seen publicly possibly being at an exhibit on the one year anniversary.
The process of collecting every flower, teddy bear, handwritten note and more from outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School began Wednesday at the memorial in front of the Parkland school where 17 people were shot and killed last month.
"All the items are going to be saved and preserved for perpetuity," said Jeff Schwartz, President of the Parkland Historical Society. “What we’re starting off with is the removal of organic material. The flowers, the plants and things that have died over the past month and a half.”
Items were placed in a truck that will head to Florida Atlantic University where they will be temporarily kept for preservation.
The flowers will be grounded or incinerated and used in the city gardens as fertilizer. The mementos have some type of meaning – some coming from across the county and even a half a world away.
“We’re going to put two boxes at each location of a cross or a star with the names of the victim, as well as the date, and MSD,” said Schwartz.
Volunteers say their biggest challenge is not picking up these items, but dealing with a lot of emotion.
“It’s still very surreal that I’m sitting here at my community at my school and this is what happened to us, and I’m very proud of how our community has reacted,” said Sharon Carter, a teacher at the school.
Students at the school, including members of the Cross Country team, stopped by the memorial site to pay their respects one last time at ground zero of the shooting. These items may be leaving, but the memories will never be forgotten.
“This is part of the healing process for me, and for my community quite frankly,” said volunteer Kim Faust. “Time is kind of frozen. Everything is just kind of frozen, and this just might be the next healing step – hopefully.”
The items will be stored and preserved for decades to come with the next time they are seen publicly possibly being at an exhibit on the one year anniversary of the shooting.
