MIDDLETOWN – Members of the Middletown community gathered in the city’s Festival Square Thursday evening to attend “We Stand for Orlando – Candle Light Vigil,” an event organized by locals remembering the 49 lives lost in the recent terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in the Florida city.
Large crowd in Middletown, one of many Hudson Valley communities remembering the 49 Orlando victims
(photo: Orysia Dmytrenko)
“It’s different than my generation or the generation before me,” said Mayor Joseph DeStefano. “This generation is not tolerant of discrimination; whether it’s race based or gender based. I’m proud that the organizers put this event together. We stand for Orlando and that’s the most important message”
When Middletown native Bryan Bernstein, better known as Bryan Junior, or DJ Junior of DNA, learned of the Orlando tragedy he knew he wanted to do something. When he saw London’s tribute to the victims, he knew he wanted to do the same in his hometown.
“I work in nightlife, so it kind of hit home the night I was leaving a gig, last Saturday and found out about Orlando,” said Junior. “A lot of people I work with are my friends, some of them are gay and some of them in our group are gay. It just had a real impact on my everyday life also, even though I’m so far away from it and I wasn’t directly involved, I felt indirectly involved in it.”
After first speaking with Mayor DeStefano, Junior engaged the support of his fiancée Chelsea Andryshak and friend Jay Vergas of Vergas Productions to quickly organize – in only a day and a half, “We Stand for Orlando.”
“On social media I saw that what happened in Orlando was tearing people apart,” said Andryshak. “There was a lot of arguing and a lot of controversial issues that were brought up. And we felt that our area, because of how tight-knit our community really is, we needed to be brought back together. And what better than music and to have a moment of silence for everyone who has passed.”
At the end of the evening, which included music, entertainment and prayer, from a mobile stage flanked with TV screens continuously showing pictures of the 49 victims, participants – wearing white T-shirts with the names of the deceased – assembled together to light candles as they heard a reading of the 49 names.
