32

Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Aaron, and I went to campus yesterday to pay our respects to the 32 victims and 25 injured during last years events at VT. We are lucky enough to still live in Blacksburg, so it's been a very loving and inspirational time for us. It was a day of mourning and celebration. We actually had a really lovely time. Here are some of our favorite shots during the day.

There was a flame that was lit at midnight on the 15th. The goal was for it to burn for 24 hours in memory of the lost. During that 24 hour period, there were two Cadets that stood guard. Here they are changing guards.

In the morning was a lovely commemoration where President Steger and Tim Kaine spoke. Two individuals also read the names and some inspirational words on each of the 32. We had really amazing seats and had a great view of everything. We were actually lucky enough to be sitting behind some of the injured. It was beautiful.

After the commemoration, thousands of people went to get their lunches, and many returned to the drillfield. It was like a big picnic!

This was the point in the day where it was time for me to go visit with Cousin Reenie, Aunt Wanda, and Nana. Daddy took me home to play with them while Mommy and Uncle Aaron stayed on campus and did some activities.

Rachel here. One of our favorite was things from the day was painting the path rocks. There were hundreds of beautiful rocks in a spiral path in Squires. We were supposed to follow the path, choose a rock that spoke to us, then take it to a table and paint it. You could also paint kites! The rocks were BEAUTIFUL! These were some of my favorites:

There were also different exhibits/slideshows they had around campus. Here are some of the pieces they had in Holtzman Alumni Center and an art exhibit in Squires:

The line at the memorial was extremely long most of the day, but we were lucky enough to catch a break. Each hokie stone had a beautiful arrangement of flowers along with flowers individuals had placed there.

We stayed on campus all day until nightfall when there was the candlelight vigil. There were thousands of people there. It was absolutely gorgeous. Names were read. For each name read a student lit a candle from the large candle that had been burning since midnight the night before.

Probably the most touching thing we participated in all day was after the vigil when people took their candles up to Norris hall and made a memorial. Here are pictures from Norris during the daylight and after the vigil.
All in all it was an amazing day to help celebrate 32 amazing people.