He's been a beacon of light, but now he's passing the torch.
Greg Zanis has delivered more than 27,000 crosses, Stars of David and crescent moons across the country to honor victims of tragedies, mostly mass shootings, but has now decided to hang up his tools, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The 69-year-old Zanis, of Aurora, Ill., told the Tribune that he's simply seen too much and been away from his family too often to keep up the work.
Zanis, a religious man who built the tributes as part of his Crosses for Losses ministry, has tasked Lutheran Church Charities with filling his role, CNN reported. The group has 135 outlets in 26 different states, and Zanis plans to help them transition to taking over his work.
Since 1996, Zanis has been making, building and delivering the crosses himself. He made the first one after his father-in-law was murdered, according to CNN. He was at Columbine in Colorado in 1999, Sandy Hook, Conn., in 2012, Orlando, Fla., in 2016, Las Vegas in 2017, Parkland, Fla., in 2018 and numerous other tragedies, including one in Aurora at a manufacturing firm. Zanis made sure each tribute matched the victim's religious affiliation, memorializing Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists and others.
He hit a breaking point after the mass shooting at Walmart in El Paso, Texas, last August.
"I hadn't slept for two days, it was 106 degrees and I collapsed from the pressure when I heard there were two more victims," Zanis told the Tribune.
After three people were killed and eight others injured at a shooting in Pensacola, Fla., Zanis made it only to Indianapolis before turning around, the Tribune reported. He couldn't do it anymore.
