blacksburg

2:30 p.m. Eakin and Main streets, Blacksburg

Tom Quigley, a fifth-year architecture

student, figured the best way to remember April 16 was with friends. And enjoy the beautiful day.

Photos and audio by Amy Matkze | The Roanoke Times

2:04 p.m., Alumni Museum, Inn at Virginia Tech

Name: Robert and Elizabeth Heatwole
Hometown: Oak Grove

Robert Heatwole, 73, a 1958 Virginia Tech alum and his wife, Elizabeth came to Blacksburg today to attend the commemoration events and the softball game. Before the game, they stopped by the alumni museum at the Inn at Virgina Tech to view memorial items from culled from the April 16 archive.

"The potential for those 32 people was just unbelievable," Robert Heatwole said.

The Heatwoles also viewed a memorial slideshow at the Inn, which Heatwole called powerful.

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.

1:40 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.

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

Noon, Virginia Tech Police Department

These Little Hokies brought some thank you notes to the Virginia Tech Police and Rescue Squad. Some of the Little Hokies involved were, from top left going clockwise: Leah Sanborn, Nora Chase, Zander Weber, Zander Krisch, and Azalee Chase.

The following poem was written for the occasion by one of the Little Hokies' parents, Bobbie Chase:




Little Hokies. . .

Busy days of play,
learning rules,
teaching kindness,
love comes naturally.

Mom chases babes,
scoots them to and fro:
"Lets go," she says.
"we're on our way..."

11:20 a.m., Blacksburg Baptist Church, Blacksburg

Name: Martha Anne Stallings
Age: 56
Hometown: Blacksburg
Occupation: P-TAC Training Program, School of Education, VT

Stallings was working a two-hour shift mid-day at Blacksburg Baptist Church, greeting people visiting the sanctuary to reflect. “Today, we knew it was going to be difficult,” she said. The church, which has a flag flying out front from each of the victim’s native countries, including member Austin Cloyd, has opened its doors to anyone wishing spending time with God, she said. The church had a noon ceremony in which 20 people showed up.

11:15 a.m.: 2500 North Main Street, Blacksburg

Students at Blacksburg New School remembered April 16 by celebrating peace.

See more photos here

Submitted by: Linda Jilk, Blacksburg