Hope in the Hardest of Times

The following is from the Oregonian. Enjoy.

Ten minutes before it reopened Thursday night, things could have gone either way at The Zone, the site of Portland's worst mass shooting. Five days afterward, would people be too scared to return? Would the place be packed?

Outside, news cameras pointed toward the entrance. Inside, workers waited, nervous but hopeful. Healing will take time, they said. Might as well start now.
On its first night since the shooting, the club would give all proceeds to the families of the two girls killed.

At 7, they opened the doors and waited.

Five minutes later, the first customer walked in, handing over $10 instead of the scheduled $3 cover charge. "Keep the change," the teenage boy said. All night teens overpaid. Passers-by popped in to donate.
The benefit was originally planned for Jalontae Howard, 16, a Northeast Portland dancer who was shot during the melee that left seven wounded. But Thursday morning, Jalontae's mother called the club's owners. Yeah, I'll have medical bills, she told them. But I also have my son. Give the money to those who lost their daughters. Having Jalontae safe is all she needs, Dyrenda Waller said, as she surveyed where a bullet blew through her son's right ankle, breaking it in two places and possibly ruining his chances at a dance career.
She couldn't walk by the spot where shooter Erik Ayala, 24, of Milwaukie fired on the crowd. Instead, she used the back door. "I'm nervous," she said. "I didn't want to come. I had never been here before, though, you know? It actually feels pretty safe."

Other parents -- about a dozen showed up -- echoed her thoughts.

Sandy Schroll never wanted her 16-year-old daughter, Kristina, like Jalontae a student at Centennial High School, to hang out downtown. She certainly didn't want her returning to The Zone so soon.
"I thought, 'What if there's a copycat shooting?'" Schroll said.

Opening the club up to parents was a rare opportunity for them to check the place out, though, and she wanted to show support. "We actually get to see the personalities that hang out here," Schroll said. "The kids are all hugging, not cussing or acting up." Schroll looked around at more than 100 teens, dressed in Nikes, hoodies and tight, hip jeans.
"I'm the oldest one here," she said. "And I feel at home."
Jalontae, the only victim who attended the benefit, showed up at 7:45. The owners had placed a couch on stage for him. Some of the teens knew him from school. Others recognized him from years of going to the club. As Jalontae sat down and took one deep breath, they thronged to hug him.
The doctors said Wednesday he probably won't dance as he used to. He'll have a cast on for three months, and they expect he'll suffer from severe arthritis the rest of his life. "But he's strong," his mother said. "Nothing's going to stop him."

Club owner Dan Lenzen asked everyone who worked Saturday night to come up on stage. "These are your heroes," Lenzen told the crowd. As all went silent, Josh Dudley, a 21-year-old employee of The Zone, prayed for the victims. He added, "God, thank you for letting us live," and closed with a solemn "Amen."
It was time to heal. Time to dance.
-- Casey Parks; caseyparks@news.oregonian.com