Surfside condo collapse victims, families honored at memorial concert

The community around Surfside came together Sunday for a concert to remember the Champlain Towers South collapse victims and their family members.

“We are here because we love those people, we love the people that are suffering right now,” said Juanita Sepulveda.

She was among the hundreds of people who came together for the concert.

“We just want to bring some peace and maybe some little joy and maybe remembrance of what happened,” added Sabrina Alphonso, the Music Director and Conductor of the South Florida Symphony Orchestra.

She said the Village of Bal Harbor and the symphony have been doing summer concerts, but they canceled the last one because of the collapse and on the 30th day anniversary of the incident they brought the concert back and moved it to Surfside.

“We put together some different music and we have some songs that hopefully will bring some hope to folks who live around here,” added Alphonso.

That’s exactly what those in attendance said the music did for them.

“We have to all come together after such a tragedy and the community has really supported the people who have been involved and this is part of it,” said concert attendee Diana Winer.

The concert was sponsored by the Village of Bal Harbor and included more than just music. The names of all the victims were read and there was even a butterfly release.

“Emotional, it was empowering, it gave everybody, or at least it gave me, hope and the strength that I need and hopefully the strength the community needs to start rebuilding our lives,” Gabriel Groisman.

“Community groups are just trying to find ways to show the people that we’re supporting them, we‘re with them, we hope we can bring you some sort of joy and peace with our music,” added Alphonso.