VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — On May 31, 2019, at Building Two of the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, tragedy struck the city of Virginia Beach.
Police records show a gunman opened fire, killing 12 people and injuring five others.
This weekend marks one year since the Virginia Beach mass shooting. Five months after the tragedy, the VB Strong Center opened for anyone affected to learn how to cope.
VB Strong Center Program Manager Rosanne Foggin said the year-mark would likely hit people differently.
“What we’ll feel moving into this weekend? Some people will feel incredible anxiety and concern and potentially depression, or fear - and others will feel relief," Foggin said. "They’ll feel like they made it, once they pass that threshold of that first year."
Foggin explained hundreds of people from the city department and in the community have already received counseling services.
“We’ve had anywhere from 350 to 400 points of contact. Some people come in multiple times. Typically that represented anywhere from 120 to 150 individual users of the center,” said Foggin.
COVID-19 did force the center to stop seeing people in their physical office, but it’s opened a new way to reach more through telehealth video conferences.
“We’ve actually had a whole new population of people we’ve been able to reach because of what’s been happening with COVID-19,” explained Foggin.
Foggin pointed out the center offers more than 60 educational and clinically informed groups a month.
“We hope that everyone will find an opportunity to honor and remember in a way that’s comfortable for them, that speaks to them... and that really, for them, is about honoring that place that we’re in a year down the road,” said Foggin.
One way the City of Virginia Beach is asking the city to remember the victims is to plant Forget-Me-Not flowers and wear blue.
The center also has a list of other ways you can show your support.