Conscious living at Virginia Tech
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Letter from Dr. Hendricks
Inspired Works
We
would like to showcase your creative work inspired by your experience of
April 16th—we encourage all formats:
songs, lyrics, poetry, artwork, pictures, videos, your story, etc.
Send
us your artwork.
It is
our intention to use these submissions to create a book that we hope to
have published.
It is
our chance as students to share with the world our powerful truth and
our authentic experience.
We are collecting works of
art that showcase unfiltered, raw, authentic emotions about April 16,
2007—no matter what emotions they
are: sad, angry, fear, or numbness. Our only requirement is that all
creativity is honest and authentic. We are accepting all submissions,
but our predominant focus for our project will be
on submissions that reveal positive and empowering shifts that have been
created since this tragedy. It is our intention to bring attention to
the positive and to embrace our challenge as VT students to bring good
out of hardship and to respect the legacy of the Hokies who lost their
lives.
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E Or you can click here to submit your work on our facebook page
We are also working on
setting up a location on campus where submission can be dropped off more
conv All other submissions
can be sent to
Original art (Please
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By your submission, we assume the
responsibility of your work and reserve the right to use your work on
both our website and the VT Empower book. Proceeds from this book will
be donated to not-for-profit organizations. Additionally, a portion of
the proceeds will be donated to the Violence Prevention and
We
appreciate the submission of your work.
And please know, we are looking for what is real—you don’t need to be an
artist or poet.
Just yourself.
Some examples we have already received:
From a Hokie Mom:
“Since the April 16th
tragedy, I would like to make my son come home so I can have him close
to me.”
From a Hokie Dad
Although, I am a parent and not a student, the events of April 16th still affected
me deeply since my son was a sophomore at the time.
He called me that morning at about 10 am and told me that there had been a shooting on
campus. This was after the shootings in AJ and before Norris Hall. Throughout the day
I tried to contact him to see what was going on. I was probably the most afraid I have
been in my life, worrying about his safety, and the fact that he is too grown up and too
far away for me to adequately protect him from things like this anymore.
In talking to other parents that day, I could only imagine the pain and agony of those
parents who received a call to tell them that their child had died. In reading the accounts
of the lives lost that day, I was impressed by the aspirations and admirable qualities of
these individuals. Truly an impressive group of people who would have had an impact on
the world around them.
As the events of that day unfolded, I cried more than I have ever cried, for the parents,
friends, spouses, brothers and sisters of those lost.
The one thing that I took away from all of it was that rather than remembering the perpetrator
of the tragedy, I committed the name Maxine Turner to memory as the person to remember
from that day. She seemed like an extraordinary young woman, and she was on the verge
of a bright future.
I will remember her whenever I think of that day.
And although my son still will not talk about it, I know it affected him, although he has not
yet expressed those thoughts. I will be here to listen if he ever wants to voice them.
We spoke to him on the Wednesday evening following April 16th and could tell by his tone
of voice that maybe it would be good to visit just to be together. We drove to Tech the
next day, and although we didn’t do anything spectacular, there is comfort in having those
close to you nearby. The VT Community also impressed me that day in how they came
together and made an effort to be available for each other. Even if nothing is said, sometimes
just having someone there helps.
The media coverage of the event did two things for me. First of all, I began to despise them
as a bunch of vultures there to pray upon the raw emotions of the community. Secondly, it
totally impressed upon me the quality and maturity of the Virginia Tech student body. Every
student that I saw interviewed spoke volumes about the closeness of the community and the
kind and caring people that VT Students are. I was most impressed by the stone placed for
the person who committed this atrocity, and the ability of the community for forgive his actions.