WATCH: Powerful Video Captures Emotional First Moment Lewiston, Maine, Bowling Alley Reopens After Shooting
Six months after the horrific mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, Just-In-Time bowling alley reopened its doors for the first time. I got to attend the grand re-opening, and my body still hasn't stopped trembling with feelings and emotions.
I will start out by thanking the kind-hearted owners of this family run business, Justin and Samantha, for allowing our radio stations to come into their facility at such a vulnerable time for them. They welcomed not only WJBQ, but WHOM's morning show as well, with open arms and an unprecedented heart. I have tears in my eyes as I write this, because I had no idea I was about to be a part of something so incredibly special for the state of Maine, and I am so grateful that my path lead me here. I knew I needed to feel all the feelings myself if I was going to report on it, so we set up the show from Lewiston.
While I was driving from Portland to Lewiston this morning around 4 am, I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. In complete transparency, like many of us, I was feeling an abundance of feelings that ranged anywhere from being nervous, all the way to feeling extreme excitement for our community. It was a complicated emotion as my hand reached for the handle of the glass door to enter the building. However, what I didn't know was that I was going to feel this overwhelming feeling of love once the doors were pushed open four hours later. Lewiston was about to give us an example of how strong they really are.
10 am hits as all the cameras were focused on the front doors, anxiously waiting to see who was going to walk in (or if anybody would walk in). Within seconds, a line of Mainers proudly walked through the doors in support, as everybody began to clap. One by one, whoever walked through the door would stop and salute the owners Justin & Sam by hugging them tightly, and nobody's eyes were dry. My fingers right now are trembling as I write this, but in a loving way as I relive this experience. Here's the moment their doors re-opened:
In this moment, it was like I forgot about anything negative going on in my life, and began to feel this rush of gratefulness that I'm here today to tell the story. The humans in the bowling alley that October night must have been so terrified, and I can't begin to understand the pain that the families of the victims are still suffering. What I do know, though, is that good outweighs evil (a quote Jadd's mother texted us during our broadcast this morning), and that's exactly what was happening before my eyes. The good was about to outweigh the evil, and you could see it in everybody's eyes.
The amount of people rushing in the doors to support the bowling alley was something out of a movie. If you don't believe in a higher power, this was the moment where you'd begin to. You could feel the energy in the room shift from anxious to positive within seconds. It switched from curiosity to inviting, and overall just beautiful. It's hard to put into words, but it's hard to describe something so powerful.
As I looked around at everybody smiling at each other, welcoming each other, hugging each other, and wiping each other's tears, you could feel through your skin how the tears shifted from sad ones to happy ones.
I always knew Maine was strong, and I always knew how powerful we were as a state when tragedies hit. Today though? Today I didn't just say it through a microphone. Today, I lived it. Thank you Justin & Sam, and all the employee's at Just-In-Time Rec. Thank you to the local volunteers who showed up and showed out this morning. Thank you to the news channels and media outlets for covering the story as if it was their own family. Thank you to Maine for being so resilient, kind-hearted, and open-armed. Thank you to everybody who was willing to talk on-air with me this morning on my show about their feelings so vulnerably. I am so proud to be a Mainer, and I am so proud to watch our state embody what a true come-back means.
LEWISTON STRONG.
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