400 miles apart, students commemorate tragedy

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Throughout silence and cheers, thousands of candles lit the night sky at Virginia Polytechnic Institute Drill Field.

Students and community members gathered there last night to hold a candlelight vigil in remembrance of students killed in Monday's shooting.

And with speeches and screams, participants touched upon the wide range of emotions spurred by the tragedy.

Vice President for Student Affairs Zenobia Hikes addressed the crowd by saying that "we are here to grieve, but I want America and the world to see this outpouring on the Virginia Tech Drill Field this evening."

"We want the world to know: We are Virginia Tech! We will recover! We will survive!" she exclaimed to the enthusiastic onlookers.

"The Virginia Tech community looks not to dwell, but to heal," student-body President Adeel Khan said. "Allow this to be the time to reflect on the lives of those students who are lost."

As the ceremony drew to a close, student leaders led the crowd in a moment of silence.

During the nearly ten-minute calm, students solemnly raised their candles above their heads as an illuminated American flag waved at half mast in front of them - a somber reminder of the 33 people killed the day before.

The sea of lights bobbed in unison as the crowd stood in quiet, but the silence was soon broken as students turned to the same school pride they had unified under throughout the day: the Hokie cheer.

Yelling and screaming into the night, participants shook their keys in the air and created a wave across the entire field of raised candles.

"This shows how everyone - students, teachers, even people who don't go to school here - are Hokies," freshman Carly Siegel said. "We're all sad, but we can chant 'Go Hokies!' just to show that we haven't given up."

Yesterday, students demonstrated this Hokie pride by donning their Tech T-shirts, sweatshirts and hats, creating a vast expanse of orange and maroon stretching in all directions.

This school spirit and pride has been a major unifying factor for students as they have banded together to cope with the worst shooting in U.S. history.

"You've seen school shootings, but then it happens to you," Siegel said.

And events like the candlelight vigil have brought deep emotions to those affected by the tragedies.

"When everybody lifted up the candles, it just sends chills up and down your spine," freshman Christy Jones said.

Jones lost a friend in the shooting who was on her equestrian team, and she added that almost everyone on the campus has some kind of connection to someone who was killed or injured.

Freshman Karen Tucker also had two friends who were killed, and another friend is currently being treated in the hospital.

"It hit me the most during the ceremony just now," she said.

But the support Tucker has received has been phenomenal, she said: Virginia Tech "really is like a family."

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