---

The Orlando Memorial Grove Plaque reads in part: ‘May love, tolerance, and compassion bloom in this garden and spread throughout this community and our world,’ Asbury Park Environmental Shade Tree Committee’s Tom Pivinski read during Saturday’s planting and dedication service at Liberty Square Park.

At 8 a.m., a group of volunteers set out to plant the Memorial Grove in honor of each of the 49 victims who lost their lives during the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub.

And while the planting was to take place until noon, a large response of volunteer support resulted in the completion within an hour, Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said.

“This was important to me personally because after the Orlando shooting, I think everyone felt heartbroken,” said Quinn, who also commented on there being no better way to celebrate her 40th birthday.

Following a spontaneous chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ by the over 200 member crowd, Quinn [shown below center] said:

“There is a number of things in the gay community that threads us all together. One of those things is that if you are gay, you have to come out and you come out multiple times in your life. You come out when you start a new job, you come out to your parents, you come out to your friends. And it’s something we do throughout our lives.”

Another experience, she said is the solace of community one finds at gay friendly venues, Quinn said.

“Living in Asbury Park, not only do I have an amazing town that is always on the forefront of gay rights in terms of marriage equality and everything else, but we have a number of gay bars [dating back to the 1970s].”

In attendance were Pulse employees, some of which were survivors of the tragedy.

Karl Winslow [shown below center], an 11-year-long employee said they are traveling the nation fundraising in support of the staff. As he affixed memorial plaques to neighboring trees in honor of frequent club patrons Drew and Juan, a couple who died due to the mass shooting, Winslow explained that the tight-knit staff hopes to stay together as they await the rebuilding of a new venue. The former site will become a memorial, he said.

The brainchild of Jacqueline Klosek of Manasquan, whose Sunshine Charities nonprofit funded the $6,000 bill for the two cherry varietal, dogwood, redbud and crab apple trees provided via Barlow’s Flower Farm in Sea Girt, the Memorial Grove will be maintained by Pivinski and his volunteers, city Director of Planning and Development Michele Alonso said.

“The trees are located within three quadrants of the park with spacing, line of sight, wind resistance and exposure to sunlight taken into consideration,” Alonso said.  “The park will not only serve those who have a love trees and the outdoors but now it has an extra special meaning to our community.”

Klosek [shown above center] said when she woke on June 12, she [like so many others] was shocked, horrified, and deeply saddened to hear what transpired.

“As the day unfolded and I began to understand how many promising, young lives had been lost, I became even more devastated,” she said. “As I began to think about the bigger picture, I became motivated to take whatever action I could to both honor the victims and keep the dialogue open about the need to remove hatred, intolerance, bigotry, and violence from our society and world and to replace them with love, compassion, empathy, and kindness.”

“Specifically, the reason I was insistent on the diversity of trees is because we are such an enormous diverse community,” Pivinski said. “And it doesn’t make any difference here in Asbury Park and that is probably why the trees have to representative of that. Those young people who were killed, they were gay but they were different. They all had their own unique personalities, they all had their own unique way of being. And, hopefully each of these trees will be a way of remembering each of them.”

The Pulse nightclub staff traveled to the city, courtesy of The Asbury hotel in conjunction with efforts by Georgies’ David Hoffman [shown at right].

“There is not one of us that didn’t bleed grief and cry and mourn with them” Hoffman said. He thanked the Asbury Park Police Department who ramped up patrols immediately during the aftermath. “We didn’t know if there were going to be copy cats. This is a combination of a hate crime, terrorism – this is so many different things. Fifty years from now, 100 years from now, this park will still stand for what we are doing right now.”

Asbury Park’s unified rally immediately following the tragedy helped raised over $23,000 in three days to send down to Orlando, and within a week the annual Garden State Equality Walk helped raise over $56,000 for LGBT support, Hoffman said.

They included members of the Asbury Park Police Department, Hotel Tides, Paradise, Watermark, and Georgies.

“In the midst of something so devastating and hurtful we tried to show some light because love is supposed to win,” Hoffman said.

City organizers immediately came up with their #Keep the Flame Burning campaign in support of showing that Love Wins, Hoffman said.

Among them is Garden State Equality Executive Director Christian Fuscarino [shown at right], whose statewide nonprofit is an advocacy and educational organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.

“Decades from now, when these trees are blocking the sun and looking over us, we need to remember the victims and ourselves as a community, and remember to look out for each other,” Fuscarino said. “I’m honestly moved by the amount of you who are here.”

Among the five Pulse employees who will performing Sunday at The Asbury, is early 20-something Adrian Padron, who like many broke down in tears during the dedication.

“People we have never met are family,” he said. “We just had such a tight little family back home at our club but everyone seems to have a story there and everyone seems to have a connection. I think that’s what so amazing about our community, there is no color to us, there is just that connection. Even if you are here and you are straight, you know how it feels to be an outcast – so we all have that in common and I think that’s a human thing.”

Padron said the fact that the city opted to show their support by planting the Memorial Grove signifies the rebirth of life, making what they endured now about a celebration of life.

The tragedy further hit close to home with the loss of locally-known Edward ‘Eddie’ Sotamayor Jr.

“I’m so happy to see the survivors here today and I am so thankful that their families were saved the sorrow that ours has experienced,” his cousin Jennifer [shown at right] said during the dedication service. “I want them all to know that my heart is with them as they walk around and carry this [tragedy] with them everyday.

“I came here today because this has to be the focus of the tragedy now – love, pure love, she said. “It really can’t be anything political, nothing gender or ethnically biased. Things like this, really bring out the real human essence of people.

“The truly sad part is that without his death we may not have been privileged to see the love we have seen through this tragedy,” she said “One, where people gather in love to show their kindness and support. I hope, as we leave here today, we take these thoughts with us:  that people are inherently good, we are here to love one another…that we are all just people and that we are all truly rooted in love.

As the crowd readied for the hanging of the each victim’s memorial plaque, Quinn closed the event giving thanks to a venue whose owner spoke against the civil rights of same sex, bisexual, and transgender individuals, but who, through its individual franchise owners, are making strides of tolerance.

“Individual Chick-fil-A franchises opened their stores on Sunday after the Orlando attack and provided free food to the survivors from my understanding,” Quinn said. “And, we had an individual franchise from the Monmouth Mall who donated water so we took it because Love Wins.”

—————————————————————-

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

---