'Wall of Hope' memorializes DC plane crash victims
“Something about flowers makes you begin to heal."
A "Wall of Hope" memorial has been set up to honor those who lost their lives in the recent Washington, D.C., plane crash.
"Something about flowers makes you begin to heal, and I think that's so important," said the founder of Wall of Hope Foundation Leo Soto.
The memorial, which is housed along the National Mall in Washington, D.C., features hundreds of flowers and pictures of all 67 people killed on Jan. 29, when an American Airlines regional jet crashed into a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter.
Soto, 29, has brought these floral displays, also known as "walls of hope," to cities across the globe that have suffered disastrous tragedies since 2021, when he lost a high school friend to a building collapse in Surfside, Florida, and wanted to pay tribute to the lives lost. He previously set up memorials in Uvalde, Texas, after the horrific school shooting in 2022, in Fort Myers, Florida after Hurricane Ian in 2022 and even in Lviv, Ukraine to honor the civilian victims of the war.
"When things happen, people don't really have a central location to come to for the community to begin to grieve and pay respects to their loved ones," Soto told ABC News. "So they walk around aimlessly like zombies."
Soto has built connections with flower importers in his hometown of Miami but also seeks out local businesses in the impacted areas he travels to for donated flowers.
Typically, Soto will show up alone, with loads of fresh flowers and laminated pictures of victims, when something indescribable happens — strangers off the street offer to help set up the display, each taking a moment to contribute to this memorial. Soto said he began working in D.C. on Tuesday and the display only took about three hours to complete.
The best part about the memorial process is the community's ability to make each memorial its own, Soto told ABC News. Whether it's adding teddy bears, poems or paintings, Soto's original idea takes on its own meaning, full of powerful emotion.
"I've seen people cry, I've seen people hug me. I've seen people avoid looking at it because it's so painful," Soto said. "It creates a genuine reaction within each individual, and I think that's a beautiful way to honor the victims that were lost."
Soto encourages memorial visitors to bring artificial flowers to replenish the display and lengthen the lifespan of the tribute. Soto said the foundation is also partnering with local artists to add additional creations to the side panels of the memorial.
"The community involvement is what's really important to me," Soto said. "It's not just a memorial that's there to be seen. It's a memorial that's there to be grown and taken over by the local community."