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Lauren Isbell wasn't there on that cold April day when a mentally ill student at Virginia Tech gunned down 32 students, faculty and staff, but it hit her hard.
Isbell, a 2002 Virginia Tech graduate, lives more than 300 miles away from the Blacksburg, Va., campus, but on Saturday, the four-year anniversary of the tragedy, her heart will be with the Hokies. The alumni group she helps lead will be working at a food bank in memory of the victims.
Virginia Tech dedicated this year's April 16 Day of Remembrance to community service. The school asked students to perform 32 hours of volunteer work in memory of the victims.
"It's a positive way to give back rather than focusing on the negative," Isbell says.
Sixty miles south of the campus, the Patrick HenryCounty chapter of Virginia Tech Alumni will conduct a blood drive with the goal of collecting 32 pints of blood, chapter secretary Kay Dunkley says.
"Even though the tragedy happened on campus, it's been a tragedy to all of us as alumni," Dunkley says.
Most of the students who were on campus April 16, 2007, the day of the shooting, have graduated or moved on.
Kristina Anderson, then a 19-year-old sophomore, was shot twice in the back and once in her toe. She lives in Seattle.
On Saturday, the Koshka Foundation she created to promote school safety and non-violence will hold a 5K Run/Walk in Seattle with Washington Cease-Fire, an organization that works to halt gun violence.
The event will help Virginia Tech alumni and the Seattle community "commemorate the lives lost in a powerful and peaceful way," Anderson says. "My biggest fear is people forgetting about the shooting."
Student body president Bo Hart was a senior in high school at the time, choosing a college.
"I made my decision to come to Virginia Tech because of the way the students and school responded to the shooting, how the Hokie community came together," Hart says.
Hart, a senior from Columbia, S.C., says the shooting is far from forgotten.
"It's always there on campus," Hart says. "I think it'll always be a part and people will never forget."
The tragedy, he says, strengthened the students' sense of community and their commitment to the university.
Hart, who was on the committee that selected this year's theme, says pledging 32 hours of service will make students mindful all year of those who were lost.
This year, students have logged nearly 25,000 hours. Hart devoted 50-plus hours to coaching a basketball team of third- and fourth-graders.
"It's not just one day," he says. "It's all the time. It's living their dreams by giving back to the community."
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