ORLANDO, Fla. – Saying "we will not let hate win," the owner of Orlando's Pulse nightclub, the site of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, announced plans Thursday morning for a permanent memorial at the property.
Pulse owner Barbara Poma outlined plans for the memorial at the site of the gay nightclub, where 49 people were killed and dozens more were injured on June 12.
Poma said she opened the nightclub in 2004 as a way to honor her brother, John, who died of AIDS in 1991.
She said the club provided a safe haven and brought joy to many.
"For nearly 13 years, Pulse served as a place of love and acceptance for the LGBT community and it should have been the last place for such a tragedy," Poma said.
In a video shown at the event, Poma said the memorial will be a "living, breathing, iconic" project to give everyone a place to grieve and heal while honoring the victims. She said a museum will also likely be included.
"I want It to be a place of comfort, but in 100 years (I want it also to) be a place of education and remembrance," Poma said.
Poma described the events of June 12, 2016, as "the darkest time of my life," saying that community was "devastated by a tragic act of hate."
"I could never walk away from this," Poma said.
Poma said the onePULSE Foundation and a task force will use input from survivors of the massacre, family members of deceased victims, first responders and the doctors and nurses who treated the victims, as well as the greater Orlando community for the memorial's design.
BREAKING: Barbara Poma says task force & OnePulse foundation will come up with design for memorial and maybe even a museum @news6wkmg pic.twitter.com/ab4cO0z7dK
— Nadeen Yanes (@NadeenNews6) May 4, 2017
Poma offered few details about what the memorial will look like, how much it will cost and what the timeline will be for building it.
Singer Lance Bass and former NBA player Jason Collins are among those on the foundation's board of trustees.
Virgin Produced CEO Jason Felts spoke at the event and thanked many artists for their contributions.
"This is a day of hope," Felts said.
Earlier, the onepulsefoundation.org website was introduced. All net proceeds donated to the foundation will go to the memorial, officials said.
"This community-driven effort is intended to ultimately support the construction and maintenance of a permanent memorial, community grants to care for the survivors and victims families, endowed scholarships for each of the 49 angels and, eventually, a museum showcasing historic artifacts and storis from the event," Poma said.
Poma said she has traveled to Oklahoma City and New York City to research their respective memorials.
"Nothing worth doing is easy," Poma said. "It will not be easy, but it will get done."
She finished by again saying, "We will not let hate win."
"While we can use this process to mend hearts and create change, we must never forget the true focus of the project -- we will not let hate win," Poma said. "We will ensure that no one of this generation and of generations to come will ever forget what happened here."
Poma said there is no concrete timeline or budget for the project. She said the plan will be solidified after the task force conducts surveys and gathers input from survivors, victims' families and first responders. She said the construction for other similar undertakings has spanned for years and that could be the case for this project as well.
"There really is no budget yet. Through the design process we are really going to figure out what the structure is going to look like. Until we reach that place we have no way to decide how much it's going to cost to build so we don't know yet 25," Poma said. "So it's all a part of the process, it is a long process and it will take quite a few years to get there."
In the months after the massacre, the city of Orlando proposed buying the club for $2.25 million so it could be turned into a memorial. Poma, however, ultimately turned down the offer.
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