When Katherine Gragg, a sophomore at Virginia Tech, came home last week she could not help but feel like something was missing. Of course it was wonderful to hug her parents and see her childhood room after the shooting deaths of 32 students and professors at Tech on April 16.
Yet a part of Gragg yearned for connection with the community that she has also come to call home for the past two years.
"I didn’t really want to come home," said Gragg about how she felt as she prepared to leave Blacksburg after last Monday’s attack. "I wanted to see my parents and I knew how much they wanted to put their arms around me, so I came home for them," she said.
Gragg’s friend Kevin Stern of Pittsburgh was recently released from the hospital after surviving gunshot injuries from the shooting.
Once she was back in Mount Vernon, Gragg immediately knew she needed to find some way to still feel close to her college. Her friends felt the same way.
"All the Tech students who came home felt like we were so far away. We wanted to feel like we were doing something for the cause," Gragg said.
In order to help her current school, Gragg turned to her former school, West Potomac High, where she graduated in 2005. Gragg decided this would be the perfect place to hold a vigil for Virginia Tech and the 32 victims of the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho.
"First I talked to the [Virginia Tech] alumni association and I called businesses to try to get donations. My friends helped me too," said Gragg on how she put together a vigil in less than a week.
ON THE EVENING of Saturday, April 21, local students, parents, alumni, and friends of Virginia Tech came to West Potomac High School wearing orange and maroon to show their Hokie pride. Del. Kristen Amundson (D-44) and State Sen. Toddy Puller (D-36), were also in attendance and both spoke.
"I love what’s happening at Virginia Tech as the school, the community and the nation is coming together and saying ‘Go Hokies!," said Puller. "We really need to take care of our mentally ill so this doesn’t happen again."
The vigil also included 32 candles, in the shape of VT, being lit for each of the victims after their names were read. Everyone in attendance was invited to sing "Amazing Grace" and the night concluded with Gragg reading a portion of the "We Are Virginia Tech" speech that was given by Nikki Giovanni on April 17.
Those who were at the vigil seemed to agree that professors and administrators at Virginia Tech handled both Cho and his massacre to the best of their ability.
"I think they [the administration] did they best they could considering the circumstances. If he wasn’t going to do it that day, he would have later. … he had hate and rage," said Christina Albano, a junior at Virginia Tech who graduated from West Potomac in 2004. Albano once met one of last Monday’s victims, Caitlin Hammerman, during sorority recruitment.
Gragg knew Ryan Clarke, who was also killed last Monday and who Gragg called "always really friendly and smiling."
Despite last week’s trauma, Albano said she felt ready to be back at school. "I’m excited to go back on Monday because I want to be with the rest of my Hokie family," she said.
Starting on Monday, April 23, Virginia Tech has had a modified curriculum to simplify the end of the school year.
"Professors are doing what they can to reduce stress. They know it’s a difficult time for us because it is for them as well," said Gragg.
ALONG WITH REMEMBRANCE, another sentiment strongly echoed at the vigil was pride and hope that the Virginia Tech community will grow and flourish.
Lisa McDonald, a Mount Vernon Virginia Tech alum from 1983, said she thinks Virginia Tech’s "incredible community" will keep new student enrollment high. She said if she could tell prospective students one thing it would be: "Don’t be afraid because it’s family, and you’re never afraid of your family."