One of the five people killed when a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fair Saturday was from the Bronx.
Christina Santiago, 29, died after the apparatus fell on the crowd before a Sugarland concert in Indianapolis. Her partner, Alisha Brennon, was severely hurt in the accident.
A memorial is being held at the fair grounds.
Santiago, who was originally from the Bronx, lived in Chicago and worked with Howard Brown Health Center, a gay health organization.
“The sudden and devastating loss of Christina has left the entire community, including her Howard Brown Health Center family, heartbroken,” said Jamal M. Edwards, the center’s president and CEO, in a statement. “Christina was an amazing woman — one of our very brightest stars — who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of women, particularly lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer women.”
Edwards said their thoughts and prayers are with Santiago’s friends and family.
More than 40 people were injured in the collapse.
Santiago worked for nearly six years at Howard Brown Health Center, where she was “a leading and driving force” in the expansion of its women’s health services division as the manager of programming for the Lesbian Community Care Project, Edwards said.
She was helping lead the LifeCycle Project, a new women’s health initiative that is designed to meet the needs of the whole LBTQ community throughout the lifecycle.
She received her organization’s highest staff honor, its Spirit Award, in 2010, and was named to the Windy City Times’ “30 Under 30” list in 2007.
