In the days following Kobe Bryant's tragic death, fans flocked to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where they left flowers, teddy bears, basketballs, and other mementos to honor Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gigi, and the seven other people who lost their lives when their helicopter crashed.
Kobe's wife,Vanessa, reached out to the Staples Center and told them that she did not want any of the items thrown away and asked if they could be delivered to her home.
"It will have been a week. We have contractually obligated events that are moving in, "Lee Zeidman, the president of Staples Center, told the Los Angeles Times. "Vanessa had reached out to us and said, 'Our family would like the items out there.' So we're going to catalog every one of them. By that I mean, T-shirts, letters, basketballs, stuffed animals, toys. We're going to put those in specially made containers, and we're going to ship them to the family."
He added that perishable items such as flowers will be composted and then spread throughout the city.
"So we're going to compost all those flowers out there and spread them around the plants in and around L.A. Live and in and around Staples Center," Zeidman said. "So that means that all those fans that took the time to buy the flowers and plants and brought them down there, some of that will still be around the site."
Zeidman expects everything to be removed by the middle of next week. He told any fans who wish to pay their respects to Kobe that they should make a donation to one of the charities set up in Kobe's name.
"Our goal is to somehow have it cleaned up as we relate to the middle of next week and we're asking people — we're going to put signage all around L.A. Live and Staples Center — if you still feel the need to do something, you can certainly come down here. But we hope that you wouldn't bring any gift and flowers, but that you donate to the Mamba Foundations that they've already set up. Then we try to get back to whatever normalcy is around the campus."