At the Route 91 Harvest Festival on October 1st, 2017, a gunman killed 58 people and wounded hundreds more. Two additional victims have died of their physical wounds in the intervening years. Others have succumbed to psychological injury. Survivors — including loved ones of victims, Route 91 attendees, hospitality workers, first responders, and community members — number some 22,000 people.
Following the tragedy, Clark County put together the 1 October Memorial Committee to lead a public process and design competition. Their work started in October 2020 and ended in September 2023, when they selected JCJ Architecture's memorial concept. JCJ recently released its plans for what's been named the Forever One Memorial. Renderings of the design will be on display through October 9 as part of an exhibit that Clark County is hosting in the Rotunda Gallery of the government center on Grand Central Parkway downtown.
Jan Jones Blackhurst talked with KNPR about the memorial. She's the chair of the Vegas Strong Board of Directors, in addition to being former Las Vegas Mayor and Caesars Entertainment executive vice president, and current Caesars Entertainment board member and executive director of UNLV’s Black Fire Leadership initiative, among other community roles.
From 2020 to 2023, the 1 October Memorial Committee collected a great amount of community input about the memorial. Blackhurst says this feedback showed how important the project was to the healing process. People wanted to knowing "that we would harness the good that came from this event and build it into a memorial that celebrated the positive aspects" of the tragedy, she says.
In its description, the design firm says the memorial will be "a place to grieve, a symbol of strength and a reminder that love and light will always triumph over darkness." Blackhurst says it accomplishes this through a variety of elements.
"It's where people can congregate and reflect," she says. "It's all held together by an infinity walk that shows that we are always reaching to be something better. We have the tower of light, which shows how we ascend out of darkness into light, the survivor wall, which reflects on all of the different people that were there that night, brother, father, sister, husband, son."
On Oct. 1, the Vegas Golden Knights will present the Vegas Strong Fund with a $1 million check toward the memorial's construction. The hockey team is also holding a blood drive at City National Arena in Downtown Summerlin, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are many other events taking place to honor those killed and support survivors and others affected. A list of them can be found at resiliencyandjustice.org.
Guest: Jan Jones Blackhurst, chair, Vegas Strong Fund Board of Directors
