(NewsNation) — A bowling alley where Maine’s deadliest shooting took place less than six months ago is set to reopen its doors Friday as community members come together to move forward while remembering the lives lost. 

The owners of Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston decided to reopen their business after the community members rallied behind them to reclaim the space from a gunman who opened fire on patrons inside the venue October 25. 

“It’s never going to leave my head,” Samantha Juray, who owns the bowling alley with her husband, said. “I think if we don’t move forward — not that there was a point to this whole thing anyway — but we’re just going to allow the people that have taken so much from us win.”

Juray and her husband Justin bought the bowling alley three years ago, pouring all of their savings into their dream business, reported The Washington Post. 

But after the venue became one of the sites where gunman Robert Card killed eight people before driving to a nearby bar and pool hall where he killed 10 more, the reopening was uncertain. 

Sites that have been marred by shootings do not always recover. 

A California dance studio in Monterey never reopened after a gunman killed 11 people there in 2023. 

Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut;  Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas; and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, have all been or will be demolished, reported the Sun Journal. 

Last year, the City of Orlando agreed to buy the Pulse nightclub in Florida, where 49 people were killed in 2016, to create a memorial.

“There is no easy way for stigmatized sites to be returned to use,” Kenneth E. Foote, a geography professor who wrote “Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy,” noted.

But some sites have moved forward.

The Tops Friendly supermarket in Buffalo where 10 Black people were racially targeted and killed in 2022 reopened, as did the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, where 12 were killed in 2012 and an El Paso, Texas, Walmart where 23 died in 2019.

The Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston, another site the gunman attacked, will reopen but at a different venue.

Tom Giberti, who has worked at the bowling alley for 20 years and saved at least four children the night of the shooting, credited the people of Lewiston for getting the business back open, saying they are “so excited to get us back.”

“The community has been phenomenal,” he said. “They’ve been right here for us. They’ve been supporting us.”

Before opening, the bowling alley underwent extensive renovation.

Above some lanes are now photos of Lewiston donated by a local company, bright paint is on the walls, and new floors have been set, reported The Washington Post. 

Mounted on a wall behind the front desk are 18 painted bowling pins, each bearing the name of a victim of the Oct. 25 attack, the outlet reported. 

Among those killed were two bowling alley staff members.

The bowling alley already held a soft opening, inviting all the customers and first responders who had been there the night of Oct. 25. 

Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, will speak at the venue reopening Friday.

“I’m excited about opening,” Samantha Juray said. “I know it’s definitely going to be a very long day, and probably an emotional day.”