AURORA | Two years after gunfire tore through an Aurora movie theater, killing 12 and injuring 70 more, the community is again gearing up for an anniversary that will bring memories of that day rushing back.
Several remembrances for the dead and wounded are planned for July 20, but fewer than there were a year ago. The city’s official 7/20 celebration will be a gathering at the Aurora Strong Resilience Center and local churches and businesses have events planned, too.
Matt McGuire, outreach and crisis counselor for Aurora Mental Health Center, said that with mass tragedies like the Aurora theater shootings, anniversaries are always tough for the victims, their families, and for the community. That’s especially true in a case like this, where the gunman’s trial is still pending — and was recently delayed — and the community is still yearning for some sort of official closure.
“There has been no definitive, decisive action for justice,” he said. “This wound in the community is still being picked at and scratched by the anniversary or the trial delays. People make the link right back to two years ago and it doesn’t matter that two years have passed.”
McGuire and fellow counselor Melissa Tucker started with Aurora Mental Health Center in December and have spent the past few months reaching out and working with people still struggling with the aftermath of the theater shooting. About half of their time is spent working in the Resilience Center, while the other half is spent out in the community, speaking to schools and other groups about how to deal with stress and tragedies like the theater shooting.
Starting more than a year after the shootings proved to be helpful, McGuire said, because it meant he and Tucker were able to reach people after the acute horror of the attack had subsided and the public and victims were dealing with how to move forward with their lives.
With the memories of that day still so raw, McGuire said the anniversary event at the Resilience Center is aimed at showing the community that the facility is there and open for them to stop in if they need someone to talk to or just a safe place to hang out. The event kicks off at 9 a.m. at the center, 1298 Peoria St., with a tai chi class followed by drumming, yoga and a gathering at 1 p.m.
Attendance at the center, which opened its doors last year, has steadily grown in recent months, said Ernest Duff, program director there. In June, the center saw about 1,200 visits, he said, which is about twice as many as they saw in April and May.
“It’s building,” he said.
Duff said events such as this weekend’s and word of mouth help spread the message that the center is there and open to help the community.
Also on Sunday, Potter’s House Church near the border between Denver and Aurora will host a dedication of their new Hope Park, a stand of 13 trees planted in honor of the 12 people and an unborn baby killed in the shootings.
Chris Hill, senior pastor at Potter’s House, said when he and his staff set out to honor the victims, they opted for trees because they would stand as a living and growing reminder of the victims.
“I want people to be able to ask the question, ‘Why are these trees here?’ So that we can tell the story and we can remember these lives,” he said.
Hill said events like the anniversary or the upcoming trial for the gunman can be difficult in part because much of the community buries their emotions about the events that day instead of confronting them and dealing with them.
“All the emotions, the fear, the shock, resurfaces because we seemingly went on so quickly with life,” he said.
The church at 9495 E. Florida Ave. has been offering counseling sessions since the days immediately after the attacks and Hill said there is still a clear need in the community for that sort of therapy.
That need spreads well beyond people who were in the theater that night or lost loved ones, Hill said, because the shootings struck a movie theater, a place everybody has experience with and assumes is safe.
“We all live here,” he said. “So even if you weren’t in the theater, you were still impacted.”