LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The owners of the Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula are Route 91 survivors.
This year, they helped sponsor the Remember Music Festival here in Las Vegas, and through sales of their special wines, helped fund the Love Wins Foundation.
“You remember it like it was yesterday,” Bill Wilson said. “Recently at a Kenney Chesney concert in the Sofi stadium, we were looking around going and had that little moment of ‘here we go.’ We’re always aware now of where the exit is and what’s going on. You think differently.”
“Your mind takes you back there, it’s hard, but love wins. Love wins.”
Closer together now, after living through the trauma, they found their inner strength and a push to live their best lives.
As the five-year anniversary approaches, they continue to help others.
“That’s what this whole project is about. Help everybody get over that next step, whatever that next step they are going through in their life is,” explained Wilson.
Bill and Jenifer own Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula.
One year after the tragedy, they began creating special wines to fundraise for a cause connected to 1 October. This year, four special blends will be on sale for 58 days, forever connected with 1 October.
“Fifty-eight days, fifty-eight days. We put them on sale earlier this year, compared to any other year, because of the five-year anniversary,” Jenifer Wilson explained. “We’ve had so many people stop in. We’ve seen it all over social media with special route 91 Facebook sites. People are really appreciative, they look forward to getting a label every year.”
This year, money raised from the wine sales goes to the “Love Wins” foundation.
“This particular foundation, Love Wins, is now contributing to the monument that will be there, on grounds where the festival was,” said Jenifer.
“A lot of people are suffering, a lot of people have this traumatic memory, and you have to kind of keep it alive, to overcome it.”
As each year passes, Bill and Jenifer connect with new friends who have been impacted by 1 October, as they continue to support the healing process for all survivors.
“Next Saturday, one of the survivors, Chelsea Romo, who lost her eye, is getting married here at our winery and we are having her reception in our backyard. We are planning with others to go back for 1 October this year. I think it’s going to be a great group of people, back there altogether supporting each other.”
In addition to the wine sales, the couple held a special concert and all the proceeds from it also go to the Love Wins Foundation.
