Orlando Ribbon Project Enamel Pin

50% of profits from this pin are donated to: The LGBT+ Center Orlando

The Orlando Ribbon Project was started after the Orlando Pulse Tragedy on June 12th, 2016. In the days following the shooting, Ben Johansen (founder of The Orlando Ribbon Project) began making these ribbons for people he volunteered with at the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida. The project asks everyone to wear a rainbow ribbon on June 12th each year to remember the 49 souls taken too early and the tragedy that struck the LGBT community of Orlando.

When the events of the night and the next day unfolded, Ben Johansen, founder of the Orlando Ribbon Project, woke up startled by his husband Tim Vargas who was the President of the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida's Board of Directors at the time. They rushed immediately to the Center, as many did that day, and Tim immediately sprang into action leaving Ben to handle the incoming community and media.

"I just felt kind of empty inside," he says. "I felt like I needed to do something. And as my husband was the president of the board, I said I had to sit back and do something that brings awareness to everything that was going on. So I ran to the craft store and bought one roll of ribbon - one roll of rainbow ribbon, one roll of black ribbon, and a box of pins. I was making them for people who were volunteering at the Center or people who worked at the Center, and as people came in, they would say, 'Hey, where'd you get your ribbon?' I said, 'I'm making them.'"

And the Orlando Ribbon Project was born.

So far, Ben Johansen and The Orlando Ribbon Project have made over 750,000 ribbons to spread love & hope and the memory of Orlando's 49 Angels.

This hard enamel pin has two clasps to keep it in place. This pin has small parts and is not made for children!