{"id":299941,"date":"2026-06-08T13:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/299941\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T13:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T13:35:10","slug":"extended-interview-remembering-the-man-who-brought-49-crosses-to-orlando-after-pulse-wftv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/299941\/","title":{"rendered":"Extended interview: Remembering the man who brought 49 crosses to Orlando after Pulse \u2013 WFTV"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 In the days after the Pulse nightclub shooting, thousands of people in Orlando searched for a place to grieve.<\/p>\n

Greg Zanis drove more than 1,000 miles from Aurora, Illinois, to Orlando with 49 white wooden crosses, each one honoring a life lost inside Pulse.<\/p>\n

The crosses became one of the most recognizable memorials in the days after the attack, giving families, friends and strangers a place to mourn together.<\/p>\n

Channel 9 recently found raw interview video with Zanis from June 2016 while preparing special coverage ahead of the 10-year mark since the Pulse tragedy.<\/p>\n

Zanis, who died in 2020, also brought crosses to other communities after mass shootings, including Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland.<\/p>\n

According to Lutheran Church Charities, Zanis made thousands of crosses through his Crosses for Losses mission.<\/p>\n

The Pulse crosses are now in storage for preservation, along with many of the items left by mourners, and are protected by the Orange County Regional History Center.<\/p>\n

Watch the extended interview above.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 In the days after the Pulse nightclub shooting, thousands of people in Orlando searched for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[126065,29106,2063,17807,126064,31869,634,115,139,141,140,1045],"class_list":["post-299941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-_illinois","tag-aurora","tag-chicago","tag-greg","tag-greg_zannis","tag-jesus","tag-local","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}