Lyndsey Cohen, her husband Saul and their young sons Harrison and Henry are placing five floral bouquets at a small memorial table at the Old National Bank in Downtown Evansville.
Lynsey, a former employee of Old National Bank (ONB), worked with one of the victims of the April 13 shooting —Juliana Farmer.
“I worked there for 11 years,” she said. “I worked with Juliana for about three and a half years … so we just want to bring some flowers down.”
On Monday night, The Downtown Evansville Economic Improvement District orchestrated a unique lighted memorial for the victims of the Old National Bank shooting in Louisville, Kentucky. This is because of the bank’s history and contributions to the city.
At dusk, a crowd of a few dozen gathers before the ONB building, many wearing blue and yellow.
Josh Armstrong is the president of the improvement district. He said the tragedy in Louisville touches lives in Evansville.
“Old National has been here since 1834, and it has deep connections with all types of entities and with all types of people. And that's why this made sense for us to get involved with.”
As night falls, the blue and yellow lights adorned several downtown businesses and buildings. These include Tucker Realty, CenterPoint Energy, Bally’s Evansville, the Old Courthouse and others.
There are also 100 trees underlit with either blue or yellow.
“There's no words that can describe the heartache that we all have and the grief and the suffering that we're all feeling, because we are truly a family at Old National Bank,” said Kathy Schoettlin, communications director for ONB in Evansville.
“It's just unbelievable the amount of support that we've had not only in this community, but the communities throughout our footprint. And really, across the United States.”
She said she was surprised by this memorial, and surprised by the attendance.
The event was unstructured. There is no podium, no speeches and no program at all, nor a countdown similar to a tree-lighting ceremony.
And according to Armstrong, this was intentional. “This is a much more internal reflective thing than that.”
After spending time near the ONB building, attendees take a walking tour of the downtown buildings which have memorialized the victims with blue and yellow lights.
Armstrong hopes it was an event for reflection upon the victims, the injured and the first responders. And maybe, “thinking about what you as a voter or citizen can do to change this. I think that if any of those things happen, I think this has been a successful experience for downtown Evansville.”
