Tributes left by the Tucson community to those affected by the Jan. 8 shooting will be moved on Friday.

University Medical Center, Safeway and Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s office have been working with the UA Library Special Collections to maintain and archive the three different memorials for the shooting that killed six and wounded 13 more, including Giffords.  

Items left for the memorials will be moved into a facility at UMC. These items will be stored until a more permanent memorial is established.

Efforts to preserve and collect tributes on the lawn escalated on Monday because of the rain.

“”The Giffords office did quite a bit of work this morning, and Mother Nature just decided they need to take in a lot more items today than they had planned to,”” said Stephen Brigham, director of capital planning and projects for UMC. “”It was very emotional for them.””  

The “”temporary nature”” of some of the items left at the memorial makes them easily damaged, Brigham said.

“”Everything’s damaged a little bit … but things are drying out,”” Brigham said.

Chrystal Carpenter, manuscript and Congressional archivist for Special Collections at UA, has been acting as a consultant for the process.

“”There will be definite challenges based on the wide range of materials,”” Carpenter said.

Many of the items require different maintenance, and sorting out how to best to preserve them will be a long process, according to Carpenter.  

Volunteers from UMC have been helping staff at the Safeway memorial and a moving company will be assisting with the move on Friday.

“”It’s very touching and of course sombering (sic) and I feel very honored to be able to help with this part,”” Carpenter said.