8:04 p.m., War Memorial, Virginia Tech
On the ledge overlooking the Drillfield, a crowd gathers.
"Dude, this is tight. You can see everything," one man explained into his cell phone.
On the Drillfield below, the crowd grows by the minute, a living mass of maroon and orange.
A few people wear suits as if going to church. A young woman, sitting on the gray stone ledge, wraps herself in a blanket. Across the crowd below, cameras wink like fireflies. A young student in a white ball cap takes in the scene.
"They're just piling in," the student said.
Submitted by Erinn Hutkin | The Roanoke Times

7:05 p.m., Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech

As mourners gathered on the drillfield at 8 p.m. to hear the last scheduled public reading of the names of the students and professors lost one year ago on April 16, Len Comaratta, Jessica Riddle, Rana Fayez and other WUVT staff worked in their third floor studio in Squires to produce their weekly music show, "The Local Zone."

Maintaining a sense of normalcy was uppermost in their minds.

"It’s like a scab, and they just keep scratching it until it bleeds," Comaratta said of the news coverage of the first anniversary of the worst school shooting in U.S. history. “There’s nothing new to say."

6:30 p.m., Tech Softball Park, Virginia Tech
Before their double-header against Liberty, the Virginia Tech softball players gathered on the field and shouted, "All for 32." It was their theme for the day.
Then they went out and swept the Flames, winning 7-2 and 9-1.
"It was amazing," first baseman Beth Walker said. "You had a lot of thoughts going through your head besides softball. ... We were not just playing for a win. We were definitely playing for 32."
But playing on this day wasn't easy for the Hokies.
"It just hits you at odd times," pitcher Angela Tincher said. "It was a little bit harder than I think I thought it was going to be. Softball is what we're used to doing, but today ... it was really hard to focus.

5:23 p.m., Hahn Horticulture Garden, Virginia Tech

The Hahn Horticulture Garden offered a quiet respite for those who wanted a peaceful place to reflect Wednesday afternoon.

That day, garden staff, including Education and Outreach Coordinator Stephanie Huckestein, led guided tours around the site. The garden spreads over more than five acres, including hundreds of species of plants from Virginia and around the world.

There is also some new construction. Once it is complete, the garden will include a memorial to one of the 32 people killed at the campus last April.

5:20 p.m., Roanoke Street, Blacksburg

The patio is filled with shirtless young men. Smoke rises from the grill. The volleyball court is empty at the end of a match. And girls in bikinis stand against the ledge of the balcony.

Nelson Oliver, 23, is hanging out with his brothers in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. "It's an interesting time for everyone," he said. "That's why we decided to spend it here among our brothers. That's where you find your strength."

Oliver went to the Drillfield ceremony this morning and planned to return for the candlelight vigil this evening long enough to light a candle and pay his respects.

4:45 p.m., Blacksburg Baptist Church, Blacksburg

Members of six Blacksburg churches gathered on North Main Street beneath 32 flags representing the countries of origin of the victims of April 16th. They congregated, in the words of Blacksburg Baptist Church music director Charlotte Smith, "to move into hope."

People and pastors came from Blacksburg United Methodist, Blacksburg Presbyterian, Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, St. Mary's Catholic and Christ Episcopal churches. They assembled in the Baptist church's parking lot to break bread together in anticipation of a community remembrance service planned for 6:30.

4:13 p.m., Drillfield, Virginia Tech

Members of the Corps of Cadets stand guard on the Drillfield.

QTVR Photograph by Seth Gitner | roanoke.com

4 p.m., Old Dominion Ballroom, Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech

Kelsey Andleton, 18, a freshman from Yorktown, Virginia, selects a rock from among those available in the Squires Student Center's Old Dominion Ballroom, where the Tech community was invited to create personal artwork on stones to commemorate and remember those who lost their lives in the April 16 tragedy.

Andleton painted a heart and "VT" on her stone.

4 p.m., Old Dominion Ballroom, Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech



Barbara Keown spent the afternoon helping run the “Remembering through art creation” site in the Old Dominion Ballroom.

Here, she saw beauty created on this day everyone was dreading. She spoke to a woman who came from Ohio to be at Tech today.

The woman’s daughter is a PhD student at the university and the woman was excited to find the art creation room after the morning’s Drillfield ceremony. The woman spent four hours painting a kite. By the time she was finished, it looked like a stained-glass butterfly.

3:40 p.m., Old Dominion Ballroom, Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech

The grass outside the Old Dominion Ballroom has become a graveyard, of sorts.

Those painting stones inside the ballroom, the site of a “remembering through art creation” activity center have placed the painted stones here on the lawn.

“Some of these are really good,” one student onlooker said. Some stones are stained maroon with an orange VT and the words “never forget.”