The pristine spring weather that characterized Friday contrasted sharply with the tears and forlorn faces that filled Monroe Park at noon, as 2,500 people gathered to reflect on the lives lost at Virginia Tech.
Among them was Lauren Hall, a junior art education major at VCU. Shaded under a large tree, she sought to capture the somber mood on canvas with her paintbrushes.
“I do all my painting for the glory of God,” Hall said, as she stroked large swaths of maroon and orange paint – the colors of most attendants’ attire – onto the canvas.
“There’s a lot of really bad stuff in the world, and it’s my personal belief that there’s nothing really to grab onto except for hope in Jesus Christ,” she said. “That’s all we have to hold onto.”
Hall was not alone in her faith. Religious leaders pulled words from Christian, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu texts to reach out to those like Hall who have turned to their faith to understand the bloodshed at Tech.
Political leaders, including Gov. Tim Kaine, who declared Friday a statewide day of mourning, offered their prayers and reflections at the interfaith service, as well.
Kaine, who last week cut short an economic-development trip to Asia to return to Virginia, said the ordeal has taught him about the preciousness of life and the universality of grief.
“This has touched the globe because one of the lessons that applies everywhere is how we shouldn’t take for granted the wonderful things about those people we deal with everyday,” he said.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling recited a poem about identity, called “Everyone Has a Name,” which was salvaged from the Holocaust. He urged mourners to learn the personal stories behind the names and faces of those slain at Tech.
“They were our friends, they were our family members, they were our fellow travelers,” Bolling said.
In a touching reminder of the magnitude of loss, four lines of attendants read the 32 names of the shooting victims. In the pauses between each one, a bell was rung from the temporary stage.
At the end of the service, a small group warmed the mood with shouts of “Let’s go!” to which most of the audience shouted back, “Hokies!”
“This has touched the globe because one of the lessons that applies everywhere is how we shouldn’t take for granted the wonderful things about those people we deal with everyday.” – Gov. Tim Kaine
As audience members dispersed from the park’s shade, others stayed behind to console each other and share what they are doing to help the Tech community.
Tech graduate Michael Bolling, Bill Bolling’s son, is working on a tribute album, which will feature songs from a cappella groups from universities across the commonwealth. A former member of Juxtaposition, Tech’s all-male a cappella group, Michael said his goal is to press 1,000 album copies and raise $10,000 in a month.
“I want 100 percent of every penny that’s paid for one of these CDs to go to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund that Tech set up,” the Mechanicsville resident said.
In light of what happened last Monday, Tech set up the fund to pay for assistance to victims and their families, among other expenses.
Michael Eck, another Tech alum who serves as the public relations officer for the Richmond Chapter of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association, said his group plans on creating scholarships named after two of the victims, Matthew Gwaltney and Rachael Hill, both of whom were from the Richmond area. Additionally, the alumni association is in the works of establishing scholarships for current, as opposed to incoming, Tech students.
Eck said the alumni’s efforts are in keeping with the university’s motto: “Ut Prosim,” meaning in Latin, “that I may serve.”
“Just based on the response that I saw Tuesday night at our emergency alumni meeting, we will do everything that we can to recover in very short order so that we can make our university a better place,” Eck said. “That said, I gave it a lot of thought as to what the answer should be to that obvious question of why this has happened.
“My personal answer to that question,” he said, “is to make Virginia Tech a better place.”