ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 11, 2019 — AdventHealth will award the onePULSE Foundation $1 million to help build the National Pulse Memorial & Museum, and develop educational curriculum focused on diversity and inclusion. As part of the gift, AdventHealth University will annually provide a $15,000 scholarship to a recipient seeking a career in health care as selected by the foundation.
The non-for-profit onePULSE Foundation was established to honor the 49 people killed, the survivors, first-responders and health care professionals who cared for the victims in the 2016 attack at the Pulse nightclub, a gay bar, and dance club. The National Pulse Memorial & Museum, projected to open in 2022, will serve as a “sanctuary of healing and beacon of hope.” A representative from AdventHealth will be a founding member of the onePULSE Faith Council. Read more here.
“We are extremely grateful for this generous gift from AdventHealth and their outstanding commitment to whole-person care in our community,” said Barbara Poma, onePULSE Foundation CEO. “Donations like this are critical to help us fulfill our mission and we appreciate their leadership in inspiring others to give.”
Not everyone is happy about the onePulse Memorial, according to Time Magazine. Christine Leinonen, whose son Christopher “Drew” Leinonen died during the shooting on June 12, 2016, is accusing Poma of profiting off the death of her gay son, and has been vocal about her requests for an in-depth audit of the foundation. Leinonen is an attorney and former state trooper.
“My son is earning zero now, while Barbara Poma is earning an executive salary year after year after year on my son’s death,” Leinonen tells TIME.
According to the most recent tax information available, the only paid employee on the foundation’s roster is Poma, who reported a salary of $43,269 in 2017. (Leah Shepherd, the OnePULSE Chief Operating Officer, tells TIME there are now four paid staff members.) The foundation, which was established in 2016, also reported $893,910 in revenue and $921,181 in total expenses in 2018.
Norman Casiano, 29, who survived the June 12 shooting, said he shares some of Leinonen’s concerns,
“The feelings that she has are feelings my family and I have been feeling,” Casiano tells TIME. “It’s hard to see people monopolize a situation like this and grow a name for themselves out of this after such a terrible thing.”
The onePULSE foundation says an audit is already underway to examine the 2018 fiscal year. She further said that what is important is that we continue to “focus on remembering the 49 angels that were killed” at the gay dance club.
A portion of AdventHealth’s initial gift will go toward the construction of the National Pulse Memorial & Museum. Gifts in the subsequent years will support onePULSE Academy, a diversity and “inclusion curriculum” that will be available inside the museum, for use in schools and in corporate environments.
Fulcrum7 reached out to AdventHealth to learn if they financially supported the May 2019 Freedom March in Washington DC. This Freedom March highlighted the testimonies of two survivors of the Pulse Nightclub massacre, both of whom renounced their past lifestyle of perversion, and accepted Jesus Christ. There was no response from them at the time of this publication.
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“Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19).