BLOG POST Standing with Orlando
On Saturday evening, June 11, and well into the early morning hours of June 12, our Pittsburgh life was pulsating in all its diversity: the last of local graduation parties were underway; the local performance group Squonk Opera was closing out the Three Rivers Arts Festival; Pittsburgh Pride was at full throttle with an outdoor concert attended by several thousand on Liberty Avenue; and hockey fans were in pregame fervor at local bars, anticipating the Pittsburgh Penguins’ national championship win the next evening.
By sunrise Sunday morning, the news of the horrific massacre in a gay nightclub in Orlando cast a pall over our celebrations. The tally of 49 dead and at least 53 injured gave it the infamous designation as the worst mass shooting in the country’s history. While that was a shock wave to the country as a whole, Pittsburgh has reacted as one midsized American city reaching out to another in grief and solidarity. In the aftermath of hate-fueled violence, the thousand-mile distance between us is no more.
All of us at The Pittsburgh Foundation – the board, staff, donors and grantees – are mourning the victims and their families. We reach out in sympathy with Orlando philanthropies, local government agencies, civic organizations and other nonprofits being tested as never before. As a community foundation, we are dedicated to living the values that were disdained by the gunman and drove him to commit this heinous act: We condemn discrimination in any of its forms, as our grantmaking and our relationship-building in the region attest. We are particularly sensitive to two groups that were targeted in the Pulse Nightclub shooting – the LGBTQ and Latinx communities – and we will be reaching out to supporting organizations of those communities in our region to offer assistance.
We applaud local faith-based organizations such as the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that have condemned the violence and offered donations and other forms of assistance. We are proud to be part of a community that respects diversity in areas of sexual identity, religion and race, and that is willing to stand in unison against LGBT discrimination, Islamophobia and gun violence.
To make donations or offer other forms of assistance, Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania has created a special web page with contact information and direct links to Orlando-based and national organizations. The page includes a link to the newly created OneOrlando Fund. The distribution of the funds will be administered by the Central Florida Foundation, a community based philanthropy.
In the trying weeks and months ahead, we stand with Orlando. #WeAreOrlando.
