UVALDE, Texas — In the days following the tragedy at Robb Elementary School in 2022, support poured in from around the world.
Strangers drove to Uvalde, Texas, to pay their respects. Some held vigils in their hometowns. Others sent condolences through the mail, from Australia, Alaska, Massachusetts, elsewhere still. Thousands of cards have arrived in the two years since Robb, as well as thousands of books soon after the shooting.
Many, too, are eager to continue being part of the healing process that continues for families of the 21 victims, and that may never end. Over the past two years, during the month of May, an influx of boxes is dropped off at El Progreso Memorial Library in Uvalde. Inside are homemade gifts to let the community know it isn't mourning alone.
Typically, Director Tammie Sinclair helps to organize what comes in.
"Origami cranes, origami cats, origami shirts," she says, listing off some items. "We have origami cranes, and when you put 1,000 of them together it's called a senbazuru."
This year, Sinclair and library staff will embark on a new project that keeps track of every gesture of love so people can see and hear them online, no matter where they are.
In partnership with Humanities Texas, El Progreso received funding through the National Endowment for Humanities to fund the library's new effort to preserve the many thousands of tokens of love it's received.
Compassion in the wake of horror
Right now, everything is stored in El Progreso's History Room.
"They're in temporary storage right now, but we're working on a project to expand our archive so we can permanently store them," Sinclair says.
This year, the archives will expand. Each item sent to the library will eventually be posted online so that anyone, anywhere can see them.
"There was so much love, passion and compassion that came out of this," Sinclair said. "So we chose to focus on that so that this can be a place to heal."
For the acts of kindness that can't be saved, the library will also start an oral history project.
For the first time, in a place where stories are mostly shared in a book, they're capturing history with peoples' voices instead. Staff will be speaking with the individuals who helped the community heal in the summer of 2022, from artists to performers.
The ultimate goal is for El Progreso to become a regional repository for the 11 counties the library's archives already serve.
"People that interacted with us, responded to the tragedy here at the library," Sinclair said, adding the oral history effort will eventually expand to include stories from residents across Uvalde.
In the days, weeks and months following the shooting, El Progreso became a place of communal healing for families. Here – where there were balloon artists, magic shows, even "big bouncy houses right in the middle of the rotunda" – families could escape reality.
Even for just a little while.
"We can't physically show those items," Sinclair said, "but we can capture that story."