campus

11:59 p.m., Drillfield, Virginia Tech

With trumpeters solemnly playing Taps, the memorial candle on the Tech Drillfield was extinguished at midnight. While the Drillfield saw thousands of mourners and onlookers throughout the day, only 30 or so were there to see the candle's final moments, not counting the employees from StageSound who were wrapping up their duties for the night. Only five members of the media were on hand, even though there were more than 200 media credentials handed out.

Submitted by Chris Winston | The Roanoke Times

8:45 p.m., Drillfield, Virginia Tech

Photography by Josh Meltzer | The Roanoke Times

8:35 p.m., War Memorial, Virginia Tech



On his perch on the gray ledge of the War Memorial, Henry Bodenstein, 21, wiped away tears with his sleeve. Moments before he had been sitting with friends, joking and answering his cellphone.

Bodenstein sat high above the crowd in a maroon shirt with “We are Virginia Tech” printed across the back. When the vigil ended, it closed the same way as last year’s candlelit ceremony after the shooting, with the crowd shouting, in a deep echo: “Hokies!”

8:25 p.m., Drillfield, Virginia Tech

The names of the 32 victims of last year's shootings are read during the candlelit vigil.

Photos by Roanoke Times Staff

8:20 p.m.: Drillfield


Video by Evelio Contreras and Tracy Boyer | The Roanoke Times

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.

5:20 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 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.