Collegiate Times

specialcollectionsCenter041609

Kennelly said the collection was started because of the outpouring of items sent in from all over the country and the world after April 16.

"It is estimated that over 87,000 items were received by the university in addition to the thousands of cookies, cards, bracelets, cranes, stuffed toys and other items that were given away to students and the public through Squires Student Center in the immediate aftermath of the shooting," Kennelly said. "These materials represent the response of the world to the shootings. Many materials, particularly those from other universities, express a feeling that their students were drawn close to us by the events and consider that we are all Hokies now."

Beecher said he helped with the idea of the collection so that the university would know who sent the items.

"I came up with the idea of tracing where each item came from so that we could respond to them with a thank you," Beecher said. "Then I instructed our administrative support staff, who also logged the information, to post the items around the building wherever there was space. As we began to do this, other staff members from UUSA and volunteers from other departments chose to get involved with helping to hang up items."

Purcell said the collection is still not fully complete.

"We are really gearing up to make a finding aid, which is something that archivists do to make it easier to find what you are looking for," Purcell said. "If we are taking a while to get these things in order, it is because of the chaos. There is no guidebook on how to do this. It really is a unique bunch of material, and we are glad to have it, and we are hoping to do something great with it all."

Purcell added that special collections will have a booth on display in Squires Student Center the week before April 16.

"We are also going to put a display in our cases here in Special Collections," Purcell added. "We do not want to keep these things up forever, but we want to have a sense of remembering but moving on at the same time. We want to let people know that the collection is here, and we want to promote it, but we do not want April 16 to define who we are as a student and faculty body and as a university."

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