On Tuesday, a massive memorial honoring the lives lost in the Allen mass shooting was taken down.
It was a place that had become a symbol of healing for so many in the Allen community following the shooting. The plan was for the memorial to stay up for eight days to represent the eight victims of the mass shooting.
However, many of the items that were brought there out of love and support from the community are now being given to the families of the victims.
“I’d like them to know that the world is crying with them. And that as volunteers, we all tried our best to just to protect, and preserve their families' memorial. That the world is sorry,” said Cheryl Jackson, who helped lead the effort to maintain the memorial over the past week.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
She's one of about 15 volunteers who maintained the memorial from sun up to sundown. They poured so much of themselves into a space that turned into a gathering place for healing.
“We just felt such a responsibility to preserve the space. This is how we could show support and passion and love for these families,” said volunteer Inga Van Wagoner. “People in this community were struck and they are hurting. And this was a place where some healing could begin.”
Thousands of people visited the memorial to pay their respects and leave something behind to show their love, whether it be flowers, letters or a toy. North Texas artist Roberto Marquez created eight wooden crosses for mourners to write individual messages. A colorful mural was even erected for visitors to write more messages of peace.
“I can say, without a shadow of a doubt that the volunteers took it all and they preserved it all. And to every person who showed the love, your love was given to that family. That right there gives me so much pride," said Jackson.
On Tuesday, the team of volunteers sorted hundreds of letters, flowers and stuffed toys into custom bins for each of the victims.
Allen first responders, who answered the toughest call of their careers on May 6, also showed their support at the memorial by helping to load the eight crosses filled with messages of love that families will soon be able to read.
“It was hard to take it down but it was also a sense of [knowing] we’ve done everything we can to show our respect and our love,” said Van Wagoner.
For volunteer Jackson, packing away the memorial was a moment of catharsis and pain for the families.
“Every night we were saying, what more can we do? Just to let them know that if they were looking at it on the news – to know that we cared,” she said. “And that’s all I want them to know, is that a lot of people care.”
Allen fire chief Jon Boyd said they plan to store the larger crosses in a city facility for now as they figure out what's next.
The flowers – which volunteers helped keep fresh by storing them in water buckets at the memorial site – are being donated to senior living facilities across the area and the stuffed animals will be sorted by volunteers with some given to families and the rest donated elsewhere.
“Right now, there’s a lot of pain in the city. And I just hope that love will overcome all of this pain,” said Jackson. “As a graduate of Allen High School, it’s Allen Eagles. We’re going to soar again. I promise you that."
Allen is a community still far from closure, but closer together than ever before.
“We’re not defined by what happened here, we’re defined by how we responded to what happened here,” said Van Wagoner.
The owners of the Allen Premium Outlets have decided not to reopen again until all of the victim's funerals have concluded.
With the outpouring of support for the victims of the mass shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets, GoFundMe has launched a centralized hub for all verified fundraisers related to the shooting. The online fundraising platform said it was working around the clock to make sure that all funds donated go directly to survivors or the families of victims.
