The Center was bursting at the seams on June 16.
Four days after the Pulse shooting, The Center President Tim Vargas still couldn’t find enough room for all the supplies donated — or all the volunteers, for that matter. A back room had food and supplies stacked nearly to the ceiling. The Center has been coordinating the community response to the Pulse shooting by accepting food and water donations and transporting them to counselors, first responders and the victims’ families. The Center has also helped raise more than $500,000 to help pay the medical bills of surviving victims.
“We’ve had thousands of volunteers over the past five days,” says Vargas. “It’s incredible to see the level of the response from the Orlando community.”
Orlando businesses have reached out to help as well.
“Men’s Wearhouse [is] donating suits for the deceased,” Vargas says with tears in his eyes.
Behind The Center’s building, more than 20 volunteers helped move bottled water and other supplies into trucks that would take goods to their destinations. Not everyone who worked in the sweltering heat — temperatures reached into the low 90s — came from Orlando.
“I just felt this void and emptiness and a spiritual calling to join my brothers and sisters,” says Erwin Ward of Pensacola. “This hits home for me really personally.”
Ward says he made the six-and-a-half hour drive to Orlando “[so] we can cry with each other and try to find light in this darkness.”
Kelly Dwayne Pratt made the flight from New York City on the morning of June 16.
“You can leave Orlando, but Orlando can’t leave you,” says Pratt, who lived in Orlando for 24 years. “There isn’t a sense of community in New York [like] there is here.”
Amanda Campu, an Orlando native, put in six and a half hours at the Center on June 16.
“I lost three people at Pulse,” Campu says. “This response is incredible. You know, Orlando has always been such a community, but the world gets to see it now.”
Photos by Alex Storer
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