OPERATION
#INGRESS UNITED ORLANDO STRONG
On Saturday June 18th, 2016 Orlando’s Ingress community joined together to honor the 49 people who lost their lives in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting. In light of the tragedy the Orlando community has suffered, both factions came together to show our love and support for the city of Orlando. We are a city strong full of love and peace. Some of the community has been impacted directly and others just compelled to show support. On the one week anniversary of this horrific event both the Resistance and Enlightened of Orlando spent 12 long hours, battling heat, rain and road closures to make sure our voices have been heard. We will not let this horrific act break our spirits and keep us from peace in the city beautiful. We will stand strong among each other and spread love in this great city that we live in. We will not be afraid of our city. We will march on into the future stronger than ever. Ingress has brought our community together in love and peace free of race, religion, color, hatred or faction. We will remain Orlando Strong!
The day after the tragic events in Orlando, a few agents from both factions planned an idea to field cross faction art over the Pulse nightclub. After a few days of planning and recruiting agents we had a plan to field a beating heart over the greater Orlando area for the Pulse victims. On Friday June 17th 2016, several agents from both factions sat near the memorial, where the some victims are still recovering at Orlando Regional Medical Center, to farm keys to starburst a heart to cover the impacted area. Agents stood farming keys among people mourning the death of their loved ones and paying their respects.
On Saturday June 18th 2016, around 7am we began to set our field plan in motion. Several agents throughout the day drove miles around the Orlando area clearing for the field art for a 2pm throw time. At 1pm all participating agents reconvened near the two anchor portals to deploy our respected portals together as one team. We divided roles and teams all with our respected instructions from our dispatch to make the starburst. Each faction had several car teams set forth all around the greater Orlando area working with each other to throw the links into the heart of Orlando. We battled heat, brief torrential rains, lightning and road closures throughout the remainder of the day building the beating heart, some of us driving in some of the roughest areas of Orlando, walking in pouring rain and enduring the Florida heat to show our support. Team White Chocolate chased an agent around town trying to keep the agent from blocking and destroying our work through the afternoon. Around 5pm the starburst was completed. Car teams then began to head to their anchor points to make the outside of the heart and fill in fields. All went as planned but not without trouble. An agent from team Slinging Deuces locked keys in a running car and was stranded while throwing a link to fill in the first part of the heart. Team Pimpin Tunacle came to the rescue to help a fellow player get back into the vehicle. At 7:18pm the Enlightened and Resistance threw the last final link to close in the heart. We had spent an entire day working hard alongside one another to make our vision of love and peace a reality. We shared hugs and tears along with those who have suffered a great loss. We met again at the center of the starburst one last time to share our thanks and congratulate ourselves for coming together as a community and not just as Ingress players. We set out to have dinner as a group of people in the Orlando community sharing laughter and hugs late into the night.
On Sunday June 19, 2016 several agents from both factions stood among 50 thousand people from the Orlando community at Lake Eola for the vigil to honor the 49 victims.
This is not your average situation report. We have had agents affected directly and indirectly due the the Pulse nightclub shooting. Our community has joined together in unity and remains strong! Please keep us in your hearts and prayers as we move on into our future days building stronger relationships with our peers and those in our community. We couldn’t have done this without our peers and we have never been prouder to be part of the Orlando community, the city beautiful. We will always be Orlando United.
A special thank you to all the agents who participated in the operation and helping Orlando feel the love and support!
OPERATION
#INGRESS UNITED ORLANDO STRONG OP PARTICIPANTS
Jenifer Caporuscio - Intrikit (RES Operator, Intel and Fielding Team Slinging Dueces)
Tina J - Integraprincess (OP Dispatch, ENL Operator and Intel)
Rob Casterline - Marklar (RES Operator and Field Planner)
William Randolph - RAMZA269 (RES Field Team White Chocolate, Key Farmer and Field Clearing)
George Mangrum - JSX (RES Field Team White Chocolate, Key Farmer and Field Clearing)
Sonya Stalnaker - pimpin1on1 (ENL Field Team Pimpin Tunacle and Key farmer)
Chris Haynes - bigtunacan (ENL Field Team Pimpin Tunacle)
Joss Herbert - SeedingOracle4 (ENL Field Team Pimpin Tunacle)
MRL82 - BucketofGators - (RES Field Team Slinging Deuces, Key Farmer and Field Clearing)
Matthew Casillas - Xamtweth713 - (RES Field Team Slinging Dueces)
Vid Stickland - vidstrickland - (ENL Field Team Droppin Loadz)
Neil Murphy - RuckRunnerGRT - (ENL Field Team Droppin Loadz, Field Planning, Key Farmer)
Alex Basso and McCoy the dog - ThatHawkGuy - (RES Field Team HawkStar and Key Farmer)
Nicole Casterline and General TSO the kitten - starbelly800 - (RES Field Team HawkStar, Key Farmer and Field Clearing)
Jeremy Casterline - caswin - (RES Field Team HawkStar, Key Farmer and Field Clearing)
George Dake - desic - (ENL Field Team Fancy Pants, Key Farmer and Field Clearing)
Zelus Smith - PartingShot - (ENL Field Team Fancy Pants, Key Farmer and Field Clearing)
Sheila Conlon and Grant - Teqbird - (RES Field Team Flipphone and Field Clearing)
Ronnie Raynor - blaadz - (ENL Fielding Team Camel Toads and Key Farmer)
Ashley Raynor - Nerdsrock - (ENL Fielding Team Camel Toads)
Alec Raynor - Bossman64 - (ENL Fielding Team Camel Toads and Key Farmer)
Danny Levine - DoodlemonsterGS (ENL Fielding Team Camel Toads)
Lisa Griggs Casillas - LotusF150 - (RES Key Farmer)
Ledwin Mercury - weirdog - (ENL Field Clearing)
Marcus Cleveland II - SkipsandwichDX - (RES Key Farmer)
Mary - Modificatus - (RES Key Farmer)
Izzy Wolfram - izzywolfram - (ENL Key Farmer)
Zack Mead - Kaizafox - (ENL Key Farmer)
Crash Fennec - CrashFennec - (ENL Key Farmer)
Joseph Sardone - themaingmaster - (ENL Key Farmer)
Iceman - icefalcon13 - (RES Field Clearing)
Aaron Hamilton - icelupis - (ENL Key Farmer)
BADENOV - (ENL Field Clearing)
I am proud to be part of this amazing experience with the best group of Resistance and Enlightened agents around!
+Niantic Project +NIA Ops +Susanna Moyer +John Hanke +Ethan Lepouttre +Linda B +Andrew Krug +Tina J +Rob Marklar +William Randolph +George Mangrum +George Dake +Sonya Stalnaker +Chris Haynes +Joss Herbert +MRL82 +Matthew Casillas +vid Strickland +Neil Murphy +Alex Basso +Nicole Casterline +Zelus Smith +Sheila Conlon +Ronnie Raynor +Lisa Griggs Casillas +Marcus Cleveland II +Izzy Wolfram +Crash Fennec +Joseph Sardone +Iceman
