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A2 UP FRONT
Saturday 28 december 2019

Man who made

27,000 crosses for

shooting victims is retiring

Greg Zanis came to realize, been killed that year.
after 23 years, his Crosses Earlier this year, Zanis found
for Losses ministry was be- himself making crosses for
ginning to take a personal his very own hometown
and financial toll on him, of Aurora, Illinois, after a
according to The Beacon- Henry Pratt Co. employee
News. opened fire on his cowork-
"I had a breaking point ers. "After Orlando, it never
in El Paso," he said, refer- stopped," Zanis said of the
ring to the mass shooting mass shootings. "The coun-
outside of a Walmart in El try had me on the road for
Paso, Texas. "I hadn't slept a while every week. I have
for two days, it was 106 de- driven 850,000 miles to put
grees and I collapsed from up crosses. I slept in my
the pressure when I heard truck and never had the
there were two more vic- money to cover what I was
tims of the mass shooting." doing."
In this Aug. 5, 2019, file photo Greg Zanis prepares crosses to place at a makeshift memorial for
victims of a mass shooting at a shopping complex in El Paso, Texas. Zanis has set up crosses af- With donations from time to
Associated Press ter the school shootings at time, Zanis mainly relied on
Columbine, Sandy Hook his own resources to build
AURORA, Ill. (AP) — An Illi- than 27,000 crosses to com- shootings across the coun- and Parkland. He also the crosses.
nois man who made more memorate victims of mass try is retiring. placed crosses after the "At one point last year I was
Las Vegas music festival $10,000 in debt and some-
shooting and the Orlando body covered that for me,"
nightclub shooting. he said. "Now I am $14,000
"I leave a piece of my heart in debt."
behind each time I go," he Zanis hopes to pass on his
said. ministry to the nonprofit Lu-
In 2016 he made more than theran Church Charities of
700 crosses that were car- Northbrook.
ried along Michigan Av- "I feel is is not the end of the
enue in Chicago to honor ministry. It is the end of me
each person who had doing it," he said.q