The one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings will be marked today by a series of remembrance events at Virginia Tech, as well as by a ceremony at the University.
The Virginia Tech administration has cancelled class today and has planned a commemorative event set to begin at 10:30 this morning on the school's Drillfield. At that ceremony, the names of those who died last April will be read, and brief remarks will be made about each. Later in the evening, Tech will also host a candlelight vigil "with the idea and mindset that people can come together again," said Mark Owczarski, Virginia Tech director of news and information.
The University also will host a memorial vigil tonight in the Amphitheater with remarks by Patricia Lampkin, vice president for student affairs, and Student Council President Matt Schrimper.
The memorial ceremony at the University will allow the University community to "come together once again and reflect on what happened one year ago," Schrimper said. "I think that many University students had a close personal relationship to those who were affected at Virginia Tech ... This is our attempt to reach out to them once again."
Owczarski noted that a strong sense of unity has helped the Virginia Tech community heal and begin the process of recovery.
"Back in April of [2007], we talked a lot about -- and the world saw -- Hokie spirit," Owczarski said. "When you then overlay that with things like the dedication of the memorial, our first home football game, our concert that we had with Dave Matthews ... Those kinds of activities and events have helped this community come together for the healing process."
University fourth-year Nursing student Randa Samaha, who lost her younger sister Reema last April, said the effects of the tragedy have changed her perspective during the past year and noted the trauma associated with the shootings has not dissipated.
"It's made me realize what's important in life, and I don't sweat the little things anymore," Samaha said. "It's opened my eyes to a lot of things that people should be more concerned about, and until something happens to you, you don't realize how important they are."
Samaha also noted that she, along with her family, has received numerous messages of support from friends, as well as strangers, and she said many of them say they continue to mourn her loss.
"I feel like recovery is going to take a long time," Samaha said. "I wish I could say that one year would mark a time when all the pain, the sorrow, would disappear, but I don't see that happening."
While Owczarski said members of the Virginia Tech community are continuing to grieve at their own pace, he added that a strong sense of hope prevails in Blacksburg these days.
"While I don't think any of us will forget the tragedy that happened a year ago, there is an incredible sense of optimism that our students, staff and faculty feel about our future," Owczarski said, adding that this optimism "exists in a mindset that we will never forget the loved ones and the friends and the colleagues that we lost a year ago."
Samaha noted that her family has made some steps toward recovery by being proactive in gun safety protests "to make sure nothing like this happens again."
Samaha said she supports a protest -- which Virginia Tech did not sponsor -- originally planned for this afternoon on the Virginia Tech Drillfield. During the planned protest, 32 people, representing the 32 slain last year by Cho Seung-Hui, are supposed to lay down for three minutes, Samaha said, which is about the amount of time it takes to buy a gun. Samaha said those who lost loved ones last April at Virginia Tech are leading approximately 80 similar planned protests across the country today.
"If we're going to acknowledge that something needs to change, it's OK to acknowledge it on that day," Samaha said. "It will be a very strong way to show we're not going to stand around and let this happen again."
Owczarski, meanwhile, acknowledged that there has been some controversy surrounding the lie-in protest at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech officials said the protest, which is loosely affiliated with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and several other anti-violence groups, would have to be rescheduled or moved to another location because the afternoon time slot first selected by participating protesters overlapped with the university's official remembrance event.
Virginia Tech junior Alison St. Onge, who said she organized the three-minute protest, noted that she spoke with the Virginia Tech administration last Friday and was able to reserve the "side Drillfield" for a protest today at 2 p.m.
"I didn't want to interfere with the scheduled [ceremony] or cause more controversy," St. Onge said.
Whether or not community members agree with St. Onge's protest and the motivations behind it, however, all parties seem to agree today should be focused on continued healing and remembrance of the tragic events that occurred a year ago.
"We want to do the best we can to remember the lives that were lost and respect the solemnness of that day," Owczarski said.
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