Vigil held in Bellows Falls to remember Orlando nightclub shooting victims

Residents of Bellows Falls, Springfield and neighboring towns came out on Monday night to remember and support the victims of a mass shooting last week in Orlando.

www.eagletimes.com    

2016-06-21 / Front Page Vigil held in Bellows Falls to remember Orlando nightclub shooting victims By Tory Jones Bonenfant toryb@eagletimes.com Families listen quietly as the Rev. Alison Jacobs and Bellows Falls resident Colin James speak at a vigil on Monday evening, June 20 in Bellows falls for the victims of last week’s deadly shooting at a nightclub in Orlando. — TORY JONES BONENFANT Families listen quietly as the Rev. Alison Jacobs and Bellows Falls resident Colin James speak at a vigil on Monday evening, June 20 in Bellows falls for the victims of last week’s deadly shooting at a nightclub in Orlando. — TORY JONES BONENFANT BELLOWS FALLS — About 20 residents of Bellows Falls, Springfield and neighboring towns came out on Monday night, June 20, to remember and support the victims of a mass shooting last week in Orlando. The solemn notes of a single bagpipe greeted visitors to Hetty Green Park in Bellows Falls, where senior citizens, couples, family members and children took part in the vigil. Kalynn Damian and her husband Ayden Damian of Springfield attended the event, both wearing rainbow eyeshadow in support of the victims and their families. They said they came to the vigil because they are members of the LGBTQ community. “It’s sad,” said Ayden Damien, who said he is a transgender male. “We’re here to support the community.” “Pride may be the most powerful act of resistance that exists,” said the Rev. Alison Jacobs, pastor at the United Church of Bellows Falls. She was wearing a knit rainbow stole for the vigil. ”Let us soon stand and march with pride again,” she said. She also lamented that legislation had not yet passed to help prevent this kind of violent act, and that “Islamophobic slurs” had been coming from a presidential candidate. “Oh God, if we are ever going to change the world, we are going to have to do it together,” she said, “every single, unique, beautiful” individual. Lining the pathway to a war memorial in the park were small white paper bags, which would have held lit candles if the sun had set a little earlier. Each small bag represented a person who had lost their life in the shooting, according to Bellows Falls resident Colin James, who organized the event. James also serves on the Bellows Falls Village Corp. Board of Trustees. James said that a vigil organized by Vermont Rep. Matt Trieber took place in town last week on the same night as a gathering of lieutenant governor candidates, but that event had a low turnout. James said that he wanted to host another vigil for anyone in the community who wanted to attend. “Me being gay, it shows that our community does care, and we’re sending a message to Orlando,” James said. “Although it’s sad, we are sending a message that we are not going to put up with this.” Trieber attended the Monday evening vigil in Bellows Falls with his partner. He said James had told him about the event, and that he wanted to attend because, as an openly gay man, it was terrible to hear about the tragedy in Orlando. “So we wanted to be here, where victims would be remembered,” Trieber said. James also brought in solo bagpiper Jarad Weeks of Greenfield, Massachusetts to play the bagpipes for the vigil. Weeks performed solemn musical pieces including a rendition of “Amazing Grace.” After her sermon, Jacobs prayed with visitors and shared a poem written by Patience Carter, 20, a survivor of the shooting who wrote about her grief to be one of the survivors. “The guilt of being alive is heavy,” Carter wrote. Omar Mateen is accused of killing 49 people before police shot and killed him on Sunday, June 12 at the popular gay nightclub Pulse, which had approximately 320 visitors at the time of the shooting, according to CNN. When the poem had been read, Jacobs offered a moment of silence for the 49 victims, as couples and families quietly comforted one another. Jacobs said that another reverend in Syracuse, New York said recently that he hopes people go out and find the place that they thought of as a sanctuary, and go there again. “He said, ‘I hope you go out dancing,’” she said. James also spoke at the vigil in support of the LGBTQ community. “We want our gay brothers and sisters to know that Bellows Falls stands with you,” he said. To those who lost their lives in the Orlando mass shooting, he said, “You’re gone but not forgotten. May you all rest in peace until we see you again.”