‘Just stop it': Pulse survivor calls for a boycott of the CommUNITY Rainbow Run
A Pulse survivor is calling on the City of Orlando to put a stop to the CommUNITY Rainbow Run. The event, created a year after the Pulse massacre, was intended to raise funds for the Pulse memorial, but the survivor says the event's intention has changed. 'I'm tired of this. I want them to do their job, and make everybody happy,' said Jorshua N. Hernández-Carrión, who was shot at Pulse in 2016.
For almost 10 years, Hernández-Carrión says he's been trying to push for the Pulse Memorial to be built, with no success. 'We wanted the memorial, that's it. Because the city didn't help the survivors, only in 2016,' he said during a Zoom interview because he's now living in Puerto Rico.
One year after the massacre, community activists created the CommUNITY Rainbow Run to raise funds for the memorial. However, the foundation has now been dissolved, and the memorial project was taken over by the city.
A plan is still in the works, complete with renderings of the memorial that had been approved back in March, although Carrion says survivors and families were left behind. 'A lot of people still need surgery; they need to go to psychiatry, and we have no money,' he said.
The survivor has now started a petition to stop the run, claiming the city is turning a tragedy into a celebration and making money on top of it. 'We sent emails to the city, we sent emails to [Mayor] Buddy Dyer, we got no answers,' he said. 'We are families, we are survivors, we have to get a response. If we say we don't want it, we don't want it. They have to stop it.'
Family members of victims echoed the same feeling. Belinnete Ocasio lost her brother during the shooting and claims no one from the city or from the former One Pulse Foundation ever reached out to her or her family. 'I try not to stay on top too much because, honestly, it still hurts just thinking about it,' said Ocasio. 'From what I know, that's what it comes down to money. Every event, everything that's regarding pulse, it's always a profit, about money.'
The City of Orlando sent the following statement to Channel 9:
The CommUNITY Rainbow Run was started by UCF graduate students in 2017 at the one-year mark of the Pulse tragedy. Their vision was to help the community with the healing process, recognizing that running, walking, and spending time with others in a supportive environment can have a positive impact and continue to bring people together.
When the City of Orlando purchased the Pulse site in late 2023 and embarked on plans for a permanent memorial, the city heard from victims' families and survivors that the race was meaningful to them and hoped that the city would continue with the event. With this in mind, the city took over the 8th annual event in 2024 and will host the 9th annual event on Saturday, June 7.
Channel 9 also reached out to Orlando Health – the run's main sponsor – but has not heard back.
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