2 p.m., Torgensen Hall, Virginia Tech

In shorts and a T-shirt, Tech sophomore Sean Harringan, kneeled in the dirt of the flower bed outside Torgensen Hall near the Drillfield. He pointed his Nikon at the rows of yellow blooms on this warm spring afternoon.

“It’s in the back of my mind,” he said of the shootings. But on this day off, he and a friend were “winging the day.” He said he might go for a run or a bike ride later to relax -- or possibly camp for the night with marshmallows. He did not know if he was going to attend the candlelight vigil later on the Drillfield.

For now, he was concentrating on the beauty in front of his lens, kneeling in the dirt to take more shots of the new spring flowers.

1:47 p.m., near Peddrew-Yates Residence Hall, Virginia Tech


Name: Nick Williams
Age: 18
Hometown: Sterling
Occupation: Virginia Tech freshman (planning to major in mechanical engineering)

Nick Williams said the events of April 16, 2007, when he was a high school senior, did not make him reconsider attending Tech.



Submitted by Duncan Adams | The Roanoke Times

1:40 p.m., Newman Community, Blacksburg

Audio by Rob Johnson | The Roanoke Times

The Newman Community, an off-campus Catholic outreach group, is selling a CD what Bryan Schamus, a senior member, calls "healing music." Priced at $10, "Voices of Hope" contains several songs composed soon after the shootings on April 16, 2007. Proceeds, after paying the costs of making the CD, will go for various Catholic ministries.

1:35 p.m., Corner of Main Street and College Avenue, Blacksburg

Downtown Blacksburg could be mistaken for a football Saturday today.

Crowds walk the red-brick sidewalks in a variety of orange and maroon T-shirts, headbands, and ballcaps. Many ribbons in Hokie colors were affixed to jackets and shirts. Some adults are here with kids. Some have cameras, like tourists.

Many talk and laugh en route to wherever it is the afternoon is taking them. It’s an atmosphere that’s so very different from one year ago today. Still, orange and maroon ribbons flow from lampposts. But today, store windows and the Lyric Theatre marquee advertise sales or Oscar-nominated short films, not messages of condolence.

Name: Jonathan Gaines
Age: 25
Hometown: Charlottesville
Occupation: Mechanical engineering doctoral student, Virginia Tech

1:20 p.m., near Peddrew-Yates Residence Hall, Virginia Tech

In an outdoors recreation area near Peddrew-Yates Residence Hall, students cooked out, threw Frisbees, pitched baseball, played basketball, touch football and sand volleyball.

Surrounded by grey Hokie stone buildings, the sunwashed scene echoed with youthful vitality and the irrepressible dreams of college students bound for bright futures.

Submitted by Duncan Adams | The Roanoke Times

1 p.m., Chi Alpha House, Blacksburg
Name: Jonathan Rice
Occupation: Campus Minister, Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship

Audio by Rob Johnson | The Roanoke Times

1 p.m., Warm Hearth Drive median, Blacksburg

Name: Skip and Majken Mathis
Hometown: Blacksburg
Occupation: Retired

Photos and audio by Amy Matkze | The Roanoke Times

12:57 p.m., Richmond

Attorney General Bob McDonnell released the following statement on the anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy.

"One year ago, the quiet routines of an early spring morning were shattered by the news of terror on the Virginia Tech campus. Virginians froze, unable to look away from the tragedy occurring at a great Virginia university. We were not alone. Collectively, the nation paused, and in the silence and shock that followed this heartbreaking news, we mourned as one."

12:45 p.m., Winston-Salem, N.C.
Name: Robin Lindner (and dog Copper)
Age: 30
Home: Winston-Salem, N.C.
Occupation: Director of communications, Drug Free North Carolina
I was a recent Wahoo grad who moved to Blacksburg and found as much love, acceptance and community in Virginia Tech as I ever had at my alma mater. To me, VT isn't just some place where a terrible thing happened. It's a place with a crazy mascot I still don't understand.