County to accept submissions for 1 October memorial

The 1 October Memorial Committee will officially begin accepting submissions from the public on Friday to create a permanent memorial of the shooting.

Those interested can submit ideas under the creative expressions category online through Sept. 30, committee chairperson Tennille Pereira said Thursday during a news conference.

“It could be a painting, it could be a drawing by a kindergarten class, it could be an actual design of a memorial,” Pereira said. “Whatever it is that they want to express.”

The memorial will honor the 60 victims and hundreds of survivors who were part of the deadliest mass shooting in recent America history, which unfolded across the street from Mandalay Bay on Oct. 1, 2017, the final night of the Route 91 Harvest music festival.

Professional designers can review the qualification guidelines Friday and start submitting their application on Aug. 1 to design the memorial. Each team is required to have a Nevada licensed architect.

The professional design teams will be evaluated by a seven-person jury, comprised of victim’s families, survivors and professional designers. Interested jurors can begin submitting applications on Friday.

Those who need assistance with the website or have questions about the project can attend an information session at 10 a.m. on July 7 or at 4 p.m. on July 11 in the County Commission Chambers.

The 1 October Committee was formed nearly two years ago and is comprised of seven people, including survivors, local artists and architects, a Las Vegas police chief and a project manager for the city of Las Vegas.

“This has been a heavy lift, trying to figure out what works for our community,” Pereira said Thursday. “We’ve done a lot of research and we’ve reached out to other communities and we’ve gathered a lot of information on what worked for them.”

Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson said Thursday that people often approach him expressing their thoughts on what the memorial should look like. He hoped they would all contribute to the final project.

“Our goal is to have a memorial that pays tribute to the lives lost,” he continued, “that honors the survivors and recognizes the first responders and many bystanders who sprang into action to help, the families and friends of all these people and the neighbors, our neighbors all across this valley that were affected.”

Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.