4/16/2007, five years later....

[vtnuclearhokie]

I had electrical theory and deforms back to back that morning. I got out of my deforms class early because we were just doing test review. Went to walk across the drill field to my car in the commuter lot oblivious of what was going on, girls on the drill field stopped me saying that cops were telling them that no one could go to the parking lot because of a shooting, so i decided to leave my car and catch the BT home, saw that was closed so I said to myself, hey you can just walk up Main street, as I was passing the Library i was pulled in and put on lockdown. I do not think anything really connected for me for a while because I didn't know what was going on but I do remember being in front of war memorial gym and looking cross the drill field and seeing the police breaking the chains on the doors, seeing people flee from Norris, and hearing the last shot. I don't think it didn't connect atfirst becasue something like that was unfathomable at VT.

As for my reaction, I took my roommate back to his parent's house that day because he was in Holden when it all happened and his glazed look basically told me he needed to get away, but once I was back I felt a calling to visit campus every day to the various memorials. Minus my parents' house VT was home.

 

[Taz_Hokie]

tonights vigil:

Wow.

 

[MattB4VT]

was a great ceremony. well-attended and well put together.

 

[Hokie200proof]

Adding on... the Blood Drive I ran at the NOVA VT campus in falls church collected 49 pints. A new record for us.

 

[Chrish1023]

Adding on... the Blood Drive I ran at the NOVA VT campus in falls church collected 49 pints. A new record for us.

That's awesome. How many donors is that?

 

[Taz_Hokie]

Virginia Tech: Candlelight vigil time-lapse on Vimeo

^ It's a time lapse video of last nights candlelight vigil. Couldn't figure out a way to embed it since it's Vimeo. I thought it was pretty cool.

 

[Hokie200proof]

That's awesome. How many donors is that?

We had 59 appointments in about six hours (the max would've been 67) so we only had 10 deferrals (from low iron, travel, sex with a monkey who had sex with a man for drugs or money after 1970, ate beef in the UK, etc).

Pretty good day.

 

[Cobrabit]

That's good to hear you had such a high turnout. I'll have to check to see what our school blood drive numbers were a couple weeks ago. It seemed we had a pretty good turnout considering that you have to be at least 17 years old to donate. This was our second drive this year and I know that our numbers did increase from the one in November.

One of the student volunteers asked me if it hurt. I told her that it didn't hurt to give blood, but you do get a free waxing courtesy of the medical tape they use to keep the gauze on, haha.

I'll have to check to see if I can't get info on starting drives myself. I may try to set up a VT themed drive at the school I'll teach at next year if they don't already have one around April 16th.

 

[Chrish1023]

I'm a huge proponent of giving blood, which is why I expressed interest in the blood drive. Giving blood can do so much more than just donating to charity it astounds me that so few people do it.

Not to hate on Relay For Life, but everyone at VT has been brainwashed into believing that it is the greatest thing ever and donating money to it will cure cancer. Newsflash: 16% of your donation goes to research. 28% goes to paying the staff and fundraising. I'd bet that giving blood accomplishes about the same as a 30$ donation, maybe more since some forms of treatment involve blood transfusions.