UVALDE, Texas — The town square of Uvalde is a place for this community to grieve. It’s a place for prayers. It’s a place to say goodbye.
Circling the fountain are 22 crosses memorializing the victims of the Uvalde shooting: 19 students, 2 teachers and the husband of one of those teachers.
They are a woefully familiar sight in Texas. We saw them in Sutherland Springs, in Santa Fe, in El Paso and in Odessa. Those crosses were all made by Greg Zanis.
"He would basically come in, place the crosses, and be out of there," says Tim Hetzner, president and CEO of Lutheran Church Charities (or LCC). "He didn’t really like talking to the media. It was just a mission he was on."
That’s how the LCC team, which deploys its K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry to communities touched by tragedy, connected with him.
"We would run into Greg at different crisis response situations and that’s how we got to know him," Hetzner says. "At some of the bigger ones, he’d have so many crosses, and we’d help him."
Greg passed away two years, but before he did, he asked LCC to continue his Crosses for Losses mission. And so it has, building the crosses and delivering them where they’re needed, such as Uvalde.
"I wish I didn’t have to do it anymore for shootings," says Hetzner.
Though it’s a part of the ministry he says he wishes wasn’t necessary anymore, Hetzner vows he’ll keep his promise to Greg and to communities that are mourning.
"We’re committed to continue to do it," he says.