- Students and neighbors started the process of preserving items placed at memorials to the shooting victims Friday.
- The university says they will be archived and some may be used in a permanent memorial sometime in the future.
- Watch now to hear from one student who participated in the project.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
The makeshift memorials to the Florida State shooting victims have remained on campus for just over a week, but they're starting to be collected and won't be outside for much longer.
I'm Alberto Camargo, your College Town neighborhood reporter.
Learning about the effort to make sure the outpouring of love from the community isn't lost to time and where these items could end up next.
"I think we're at 12 memorial sites across campus, including one that was at the stadium after the vigil last Friday."
With thousands of cards, stuffed animals, signs, candles, and more, it was all hands on deck Friday to preserve them.
Katie McCormick with FSU Special Collections & Archives says most of the flowers are being composted to be used as a sort of fertilizer for the living plants on campus.
A select few may be dried and preserved alongside the physical items.
McCormick says there's never a great time to remove the memorials, but she hopes everyone had time to see them.
"When significant events happen on our campus, even such traumatic events as this, it's very important to contribute to the healing process through preserving memorial sites and messages and objects that people have contributed."
McCormick also says dozens of FSU students, faculty, and staff volunteered their time to a project that was unforeseen, but so important to preserve.
"This is very surreal, I would say."
One of those students was senior Terryon Larkins, who has worked with Special Collections and Archives for four years.
Larkins says he was most impacted by the many heartfelt handwritten messages he read as he picked up items at the memorials.
"Just seeing all the kind words, seeing all the kind things people were saying towards the families of the people who were lost and the students that were injured. Those are the things that really make you believe that there's a lot of good out in the world right now."
For the items that remain on campus, there is no large operation scheduled like Friday, but expect them to slowly be collected to avoid the items being affected by hot or stormy weather.
McCormick says a permanent memorial to the victims of the shooting is coming, but its still in early concept stages and looking to get input from students and the campus community.
It will most likely become part of the FSU Heritage Museum inside Dodd Hall.
In College Town, Alberto Camargo, ABC27.
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