Clark County Commission allocates $1 million grant to nonprofit group to support 1 October Memorial

 Speecial to the Las Vegas Tribune

The Clark County Commission voted today to allocate a $1 million grant to the Vegas Strong Fund to assist with administrative and design services related to development of the community’s 1 October Memorial project to remember the events of the tragedy that occurred at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip on Oct. 1, 2017.

The grant will help convert the concept of the “Forever One Memorial” created by JCJ Architecture and approved by the County Commission in September 2023 into a design that includes a budget and supporting fundraising campaign to build the memorial. The JCJ concept, which includes a tower of light, 58 vertical candles representing the victims who died in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and a community plaza was selected by the 1 October Memorial Committee following a three-year effort to gather extensive input from family members of victims, survivors and the public to recommend a design concept for a permanent memorial.

“Today’s $1 million grant reaffirms our commitment to building a memorial that honors the victims of the 1 October tragedy and pays tribute to the resiliency and compassion demonstrated by our community in the days and years since,” said Clark County Commissioner Jim Gibson, whose Commission District includes the festival site. “We have a beautiful concept for a memorial, and now a critical phase of work is under way that will lay the foundation for a communitywide fundraising effort to build a project that will serve as a lasting tribute to those whose lives were lost and for all whose lives have been forever changed as a result of the events of that evening.”

In April the County Commission designated the Vegas Strong Fund as the non-profit organization responsible for fundraising, designing and constructing the 1 October Memorial. The Vegas Strong Fund has been involved with extensive 1 October-related charitable endeavors. As part of that action, a total of $143,986 in donations collected by the County for the memorial also were transferred to the Vegas Strong Fund to develop the project.

“For close to seven years, the Vegas Strong Fund has been devoted to standing by those affected by the tragic events of 1 October,” said Jan Jones-Blackhurst, Chair of the Board of Directors for the Vegas Strong Fund. “From raising funds to support the Las Vegas Victim’s Fund, establishing a scholarship program for the children of those impacted, and making grants to support gatherings for survivors and victims’ families to connect and remember, we are now honored to embark on the next chapter of this collective healing journey with the creation of a permanent memorial. We thank the Clark County Commission for trusting us as partners in this effort to fundraise and build the Forever One Memorial and for voting to approve $1 million in startup funds towards our shared goal.”

The memorial will be built on two acres in the northeast corner of the festival site off Reno Avenue and Giles Street. MGM Resorts International offered to donate the acreage after a clear majority of respondents in a 1 October Memorial Committee survey indicated a preference for a memorial to be built on the festival site.

“After collaborating on a three-year process rooted in community engagement to select a design for the permanent 1 October memorial, this vote from the Commission is a valuable catalyst in our fundraising efforts,” said Tennille Pereira, member of the Vegas Strong Fund Board of Directors, Director of the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center and former chair of the 1 October Memorial Committee. “The staff at Clark County Government and all of the elected members of the Commission have been great partners in this work and we are committed to responsibly stewarding the trust they have placed in us with these funds. We look forward to further engaging the community in the near future as the funding and construction campaign continues.”