Photos of GMU's Memorial Vigil for Virginia Tech

GMU did a great job with the memorial service for Virginia Tech tonight. Everything was very appropriate and quite a few students, families, and faculty turned out for it. President Merton spoke and several people sang including Laura Mays, a junior from Manassas, who sang a beautiful song she wrote after hearing of the tragedy called: "We Are Virginia". Representatives from several campus religious faiths spoke and they lit candles through the crowd.

Most of the service was relatively subdued, but tears started flowing when they started reading the names of the victims and had a representative for each person place a rose in a vase on stage. It really brought home just how many people died on Monday.

After they finished with the main service, they carried a wreath down to the statue of George Mason (who was wearing a Virginia Tech jersey) and each person in attendance laid a flower at Mason's feet. When this processional started the sun was still up and it was dark by the time all the flowers had been laid down. After a moment of silence the crowd started yelling a familiar "Let's go!" followed by everyone responding "HOKIES!" It was just like being back in Blacksburg.

Someone then put their candle on the statue's platform and everyone else soon followed. Many tears started flowing again as people left their candles.

The service ended with a moment of silence at 9 PM to coincide with a statewide vigil starting at the same time. I commend GMU for doing a wonderful job with the service tonight.

See more of my photos here. You can also watch them as a slideshow.