Student plays bagpipe to memorialize Scottish massacre

College freshman Alex Platt solemnly walked out of Van Pelt College House with his electronic bagpipe hanging from his neck and a sheet of paper in his hand Saturday morning. Platt was preparing to commemorate the one month anniversary of a tragedy that affected people around the world. This Saturday marked exactly one month since a mass shooting took place at the Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, Scotland. Eleven kindergardeners, ages five and six , and their teacher Gwen Meyer, 44, were killed in the shooting on March 13. At noon, Platt and a small group of University students and local residents took part in a worldwide ceremony organized in memory of the children and schoolteacher. People around the world performed the same ceremony as the clock struck noon in each of their time zones throughout the day. Platt kicked off the ceremony with a brief recount of what happened in the primary school's gym when the shooting started. "Amazing Grace" filled the air from Platt's electronic bagpipe, followed by a moment of silence. Platt then read the names of those who died. After repeating "Amazing Grace," Platt closed with a bagpipe piece called "Millwheel." Platt, who has been playing the bagpipe for one year, said he often reads an Internet newsgroup for bagpipers. Through the newsgroup, he discovered the ceremony and decided to take part in it at the University. "I was taken by the whole idea of the ceremony itself in that it was going to be something globally observed which pointed back to the incident in Dunblane," Platt said. "I felt it was something positive and necessary to take part of." Platt solely organized the University's participation in the ceremony , which took place on the field between Van Pelt College House and the Modern Languages College House. But the original idea for the worldwide ceremony and its format was organized and presented over the Internet by Birgit Gonzalez, an administrator at the State University of New York at Binghamton who attended the Dunblane school 20 years ago. "I wanted to do something -- just being personally connected with the town," Gonzalez said, adding that the bagpipes are a very important Scottish symbol. Gonzalez noted that she has calculated that 25 states, five Canadian provinces and at least three international groups participated in Saturday's ceremony. "Some were very simple and some were much more elaborate," she added. Platt said he was pleased to have discovered the idea over the Internet. "The Internet in a large sense brings unique things in the public eye," he said. "I am awed by the fact that [Gonzalez] made use of the Internet to bring all of the people all over the world together." But Platt himself succeeded in adding to that task by involving those at the University. He said he wanted to take part in the ceremony for himself, while also bringing others in to take part. College freshman Mandy Taylor received an e-mail from a friend in California about the ceremony. But on Saturday, she discovered a local connection to the worldwide event as she left Van Pelt College House and heard Platt play "Amazing Grace." Van Pelt administrative fellow Cathleen Riddley was also present and affected by the ceremony. "It is such a tragedy that all those little children who were innocent were killed," the Sociology graduate student said. "The fact that Alex is playing makes me feel good in that we are doing something for others." Besides playing the bagpipe, Platt also plays double bass in the Composers of the University of Pennsylvania Orchestra.