Design for Oregon District Shooting Memorial revealed

DAYTON — The design for a memorial honoring the nine victims of the Oregon District Shooting has been revealed after years of deliberation.

The design is called “The Seed of Life.” It’s described as a “public art memorial and contemplative space designed to remember the nine victims, first responders, families, and all those affected by the violence” of the mass shooting on Aug. 4, 2019.

The team for the selected design includes Terry Welker, an architect and sculptor; Sierra Leone, a poet and educator; Jes McMillan, an artist and founder of The Mosaic Institute; and James Pate, an artist, designer, and art educator.

>> PHOTOS: Design for Oregon District Shooting Memorial revealed

In an announcement of the design, it was clear the community is still healing.

“On that tragic day for me personally, my family felt we received a massive hug from you guys,” Lisandra James said. “This memorial and doing this just brings back that hug for me.”

James lost her 27-year-old daughter Lois Oglesby in the shooting.

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She said she was a firecracker and the life of the party.

“To me, if there isn’t a story, if there isn’t a memorial, then it won’t be talked about, it would just kind of be swept under the rug of something that just happened,” James said.

Jeremy Ganger was a bouncer at Ned Pepper’s and guided people inside the bar as the gunman used the door.

“The next generation behind me, when I’m long gone, I want my daughter to know what happened here,” he said.

The memorial would be installed in the plaza on East Fifth Street, not far from Wayne Avenue, next to Trolley Stop.

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