A four-person team of artists is creating a memorial, called the “Seed of Life,” which will be installed in a public plaza near the eastern edge of the East Fifth Street business district in the Oregon District.
The space is meant to be a place of reflection and healing for community members who were impacted by the tragedy.
The plaza, which is next to Trolley Stop tavern, will have metal sculptures, a colorful mosaic on the ground, seating, new plantings and other features.
The memorial should be finished by Aug. 4 of this year, which will mark five years since a dark and painful day in Dayton’s history.
On Thursday, some people visited the Dayton Metro Library downtown for a 3-8 p.m. session to help out with the the mosaic.
Volunteers glued porcelain tile pieces onto fiber mesh to help create pinkish petals.
The mosaic will have nine petals representing the nine people who were killed: Lois Oglesby, Saeed Saleh, Derrick Fudge, Nicholas Cumer, Logan Turner, Thomas McNichols, Beatrice Warren-Curtis, Monica Brickhouse and Megan Betts.
Volunteer Cheryl Warner, 70, of Kettering, said it’s very important to create a memorial because so many people and families were affected by the tragedy.
Warner helped glue and place the tiles for the petals with her friend Deb Bach.
Warner said art is powerful and therapeutic.
“It’s therapy for me,” she said, adding that, “Their loved ones should be remembered.”
Bach, 63, of Beavercreek, said the tragedy hit close to home. She knows someone who was celebrating with a wedding party in the Oregon District on that terrible night.
Bach said she’s not much of an artist, but she’s glad to be a part of this project.
She said working on the mosaic feels like putting a puzzle together.
Jes McMillan, the artist in charge of the mosaic, said about one-fifth of the mosaic portion of the memorial is finished.
The Seeds of Life mosaic is expected to contain tens of thousands of porcelain tiles. It is expected to be around 500 square feet in size.
McMillan said community members are needed and encouraged to help place the tile pieces.
She said volunteers have pitched in at more than half a dozen public and private events, and there will be more future sessions for people to participate.
The mosaic “is giving us the opportunity to physically do something that promotes trauma release and healing in the community,” McMillan said. “We all have this heavy, collective grief that we’re dealing with, and so this is a process to help with that release.”
McMillan said the Seed of Life is a sacred and ancient geometric design that has seven overlapping circles.
“We chose this design because we felt like it is going to be timeless,” she said.
The mosaic should be installed this summer.
Community involvement is a key part of the process to create a memorial, said Sandy Gudorf, co-chair of the 8/4 Memorial Committee.
“We were all affected by the terrible tragedy, so this is part of the healing process,” she said. “There will be plenty more opportunities ... Whether you want to put just one piece in or if you want to work on it for a longer period of time, come down and be part of it.”
She added, “There’s a lot of tile to put down.”
Information about events where volunteers can help with the mosaic can be found at The Mosaic Institute’s Facebook page.
The Mosaic Institute in South Park is hosting some of the public and private sessions. McMillan is the founder and executive director of the institute.
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