Nearly nine years after the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting killed 58 people and wounded more than 800 others, eighth-graders at Ralph Cadwallader Middle School are still painting a pair of angel wings for every victim, each one carrying a detail from that person's life. The project, now a yearly ritual in art teacher Francisco Eclarin's advanced class, asks students to choose one of the 58 people killed in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 1, 2017, attack and turn their research into a wearable, photographable piece of memorial art.
The deadliest mass shooting in modern American history left 58 people dead and more than 800 wounded that night, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Eclarin and Christine Janette, a retired Cadwallader teacher who survived the shooting, created the 58 Angel Wings Project a year after the tragedy, the Sun reports. Janette has said the project became part of her own healing process and that she felt compelled to give back to the community after surviving the attack.
Turning Research Into Remembrance
Students in Eclarin's class pick one of the 58 victims and design a pair of angel wings in their honor, weaving in references to the person's hometown, favorite color, college or family members, per the same Sun account. Before picking up a brush, students listen to survivors' stories and watch other videos as part of the project's educational programming, and each student writes a short artist statement explaining the choices behind their wings.
At Cadwallader, student artist Tyler B. researched the life of a victim before starting his artwork, incorporating handcuffs and a police badge to represent the victim's interest in law enforcement and a black ribbon to mark the victim's black belt in taekwondo. Across town at Gunderson Middle School, student artist Lauren Bergeron created wings honoring Tara Roe Smith, using a ladybug to represent Smith's interests and butterflies to symbolize her two children and husband.
Families Find Comfort in the Details
Scott and Crissy Schweitzer lost their daughter Bailey in the shooting, and Crissy Schweitzer has said students incorporated details about Bailey's cheerleading, racing and love of the color teal into the artwork made in her memory. Scott Schweitzer has said returning to Las Vegas remains difficult for the family, but they plan to come back to the city ahead of the opening of the Forever One Memorial, with the student artwork honoring Bailey providing a measure of comfort along the way.
Teche Bergeron, a 1 October survivor, has said the project helps families know their loved ones have not been forgotten. Janette has said the remembrance date remains difficult nearly a decade later, even as the project has grown into an annual tradition that keeps the victims' stories circulating among a new class of students each year.
A Memorial Still Taking Shape
The sources distinguish the 58 people killed in the immediate aftermath of the shooting from two additional people who died later from injuries suffered that night, bringing the overall death toll to 60. The planned Forever One Memorial says its primary goal is to pay tribute to those affected by the events of Oct. 1, 2017, while celebrating community unity, and the memorial's centerpiece will be 58 pillars of light known as the 58 Candles, representing the lives lost. The Sun reports the memorial is expected to open by Oct. 1, 2027.
The team behind that permanent memorial has considered creating a similar angel-wings program for all Clark County School District students, according to the Sun's reporting. Students were scheduled to display their finished wings during a free exhibition at Cadwallader Middle School this week, giving families and the broader Las Vegas Valley another chance to see how a classroom art project keeps the memory of 58 individual lives from fading into a single, distant statistic.
