The Spread Kindness Angel Wings Project by students at Cadwallader Middle School will be on exhibit inside the Clark County Government Center following the 1 October Sunrise Remembrance Ceremony on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. in the amphitheater.
The project was started by Christine Janette, a Cadwallader teacher and 1 October survivor, as a tribute to the 58 lives lost in aftermath of the tragedy and an initiative to encourage kindness in the world. Each year, advanced art students under the direction of art teacher Frank Eclarin at the school are provided with a photo and brief biography of those who perished. Students use the information to design a set of angel wings that they feel represents the specific person and his or her life.
Fifty-eight sets of wings created for this year’s Angel Wings project will be on display in the indoor rotunda and a nearby hallway. The rotunda will be open until noon on Saturday following the Remembrance Ceremony so attendees can see the Angel Wings project and the Clark County Museum’s 1 October exhibit that is on display in the rotunda through Oct. 13. The Government Center exhibit is a satellite display that is part of the longer-term “5 Years Later: Remembering 1 October & Becoming Vegas Stronger” now open at the Clark County Museum located at 1830 S. Boulder Highway. Both museum exhibits feature items from the museum’s 22,000-piece 1 October collection including banners, letters, cowboy hats, stuffed animals and other items left at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign and other locations as offerings of grief and support following the attack at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on Oct. 1, 2017.
“The 1 October tragedy was a time of tremendous sadness as well as tremendous strength, compassion and unity,” said Clark County Commission Chairman Jim Gibson. “The anniversary and these exhibits present an opportunity to honor those who were lost and to support survivors and family members and others whose lives have been forever changed. We also see through the experience of these exhibits how small acts of love and kindness add up and serve as a powerful source of goodness in the world.”
The Government Center exhibit includes The Art of Healing Mural and Angels of Love exhibit created in remembrance of the first anniversary of 1 October. The Art of Healing Mural, created by local artists and students at Las Vegas Academy of the Arts high school, contains nine large panels with teddy bear images representing the 58 lives lost on 1 October and condolence messages the public was invited to write the first year it was on display. The Angels of Love exhibit, created by a California nonprofit organization, contains stain-glass angels in remembrance of those who perished and the hundreds who were injured, as well as memorabilia dedicated to first responders who sprang into action to help victims. It has remained on display in the Government Center since it was given to the County in 2018.
The 1 October exhibit at the museum on Boulder Highway will be in place through January. Following the tragedy, museum staff and volunteers spent 18 months and hundreds of hours cataloging artifacts. The 1 October collection includes many of the white wooden crosses that were part of “The Crosses for Losses” display that was set up at the Welcome sign by Illinois carpenter Greg Zanis. Some of the crosses have been given to family members at their request. Items were photographed and can be viewed on the museum’s website at www.ClarkCountyNV.gov/museum. Appointments can be made to view specific items in the collection not on display but in storage at the museum. Museum staff also are collecting stories behind memorial items to include in efforts to preserve the memory of our community’s reaction to the 1 October tragedy. A form is posted on the museum’s website for anyone interested in sharing their story about what they left at one of the memorial sites. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children and seniors.
The museum exhibits also highlight the progress of Clark County’s 1 October Memorial Committee. The Clark County Commission established the committee to gather input from the public to create a permanent memorial that remembers those who perished in the attack, honors survivors, first responders and all those affected by the incident, and recognizes the resiliency and compassion of our community. A Call for Creative Expressions is open through Oct. 31 that invites the public to share ideas for the memorial or any form of creativity made in response to the tragedy. From the earliest days following the 1 October attack, people have used creativity in a variety of ways to express love, hope, sorrow and support. The committee hopes to capture as many forms of those expressions as possible to help shape the eventual memorial project that gets built. All types of expressions are welcome including drawings, photos, songs and other artwork, and can be made on the committee’s website at ClarkCountyNV.gov/1OctoberMemorial and through this mobile app: https://apps.vdomobile.com/m/1octobermemorial/. Individual artists interested in contributing to the creation of the memorial also are invited to share their resumes or portfolios. Design teams selected to develop concepts for a memorial will be asked to review all Creative Expressions submissions to inform their proposals. Submissions received so far can be seen in the committee’s online gallery at https://tinyurl.com/38snr674. The process for developing a memorial project is expected to result in a formal recommendation to the County Commission in the summer of 2023.
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