Source: GREGG NEWTON / Getty
It began in the 1970’s, when carpenter Greg Zanis began building wooden crosses to memorialize lives lost. It started one when his neighbor asked carpenter Greg if he would make a cross for her lost son.
Since then, Greg has become the man who makes crosses for lost lives and in his own estimation, he’s built over 12,000 memorials crosses over the years
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He was even covered in a story in 1999 for the Columbine High School that easily showed the crosses that he gladly traveled to deliver for the 12 teenagers who died that day.
Greg builds the homemade, crafted crosses in his own garage, at his home in Illinois. When he’s finished building, Greg travels this distance to deliver them personally the site of the tragedy.
This time, for the Pulse night club shooting, Greg built 49 white crosses that are 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Each cross comes with red hearts and their names on them.
It’s like he said, “I’m ding this for their families. This individualizes it.”
He also told us that that all the lumber that he uses to build the crosses is donated and that the Orlando mass shooting is the biggest memorial that he’s ever built for.
In 2012, Greg was also in Aurora, Colo. to memorialize the movie theater mass shooting and in 2013, he was there in Boston after the marathon bombing.
Via:tennessean
