BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — As the city prepares to mark four years since the racially motivated mass shooting at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue, the 5/14 Memorial Foundation is hosting a series of listening sessions to gain community input on the future 5/14 Living Memorial and Healing Center.
The foundation held a community focus group at Calvary Baptist Church in Buffalo on Wednesday to help shape the memorial's future.
"Our efforts is to really bring the community together," Chad Houston, executive director of the 5/14 Memorial Foundation, said.
"In the days and months after 5/14, we saw the community come together and support each other, so this effort is very much a continuation of that," Houston said.
Many people shared their thoughts on what they would like to see and experience at the future memorial, which is set to be built on Jefferson Avenue and Best Street. Many attendees have personal connections to the 10 lives tragically lost on May 14, 2022.
"A place not only to go back and reflect on the people that we lost, but it also would give us a place to think about the things and the goodness that they brought, brought to us and brought to the community, and for the survivors, I think it would be somewhere that they will be allowed to heal," Debbie Stokes said.
WATCH: Buffalo community shares input on future 5/14 Living Memorial and Healing Center
"Teaching people how to grow flowers, and vegetables, have that lively music, make it a jubilant area you want to encourage the ones that survive and their families, but we don't want to forget we wanna reach back and remember those who are gone, so make it congenial to everybody, something for everybody," Geneba Smith-Johnson said.
"I wanna feel some, some happiness, because the spirit lives on, and we need to honor the living spirit because they all had some sort of positivity in their lives that needs to be honored," Sharon Hayes said.
Houston told me fundraising continues for what he expects will be a $20 million project. He hopes groundbreaking will begin on the Living Memorial and Healing Center later this year, with completion eyed by the end of 2027.
"It's important that we do this together, because it can't just come from one entity or one part of the community, it really has to be a collective effort," Houston said.
If you are interested in attending an upcoming focus group, there are three more scheduled between now and May 6. You can find more information at 514memorial.com.
