Austin went on four week-long trips with the Appalachia Service Project, a Christian ministry designed to repair homes for low-income families in Central Appalachia. The Cloyds have taken around 150 Tech students and faculty members on five weekend trips just this year.

"The reason my wife and I decided to take some Virginia Tech students down this year was just that that was something Austin had done through high school and something we thought would be helpful," Bryan Cloyd said. "We just wanted to make that opportunity available and to have that opportunity ourselves to work with students."

Renee was the director of Youth Ministries at First United Baptist Church at the Cloyds' former residence, where she headed up ASP trips. While Bryan stayed home with his son, who was too young to go, Austin always accompanied her mother.

About 15,000 volunteers help 400 to 500 families fix their houses every year through ASP, according to the organization's Web site. More than 240,000 volunteers have performed tasks such as installing wheelchair ramps, fixing plumbing problems, building porches and repairing roofs on over 12,500 homes since the ASP's inception in 1969.

The Cloyds began helping with the project after asking that donations made in Austin's name be sent to the ASP. Soon thereafter, almost $70,000 was sent to the organization in Austin's honor.

Bryan said the amount surprised him and was very meaningful, but the amount of donors was more shocking. He explained that well over 600 people had donated to Austin's fund.

The magnitude of the contributions brought much attention from leaders of the ASP, Cloyd said. The organization's president, Susan Crow, and its chief philanthropy officer, David Bryant, came to Tech to speak with Bryan Cloyd over Memorial Day. Together, they started planning the trips.

Although most of the groups who attend the trips through the ASP are affiliated with churches, the Cloyds organized groups of students and faculty who were simply bound by their friendship with Austin or desire to help others in the honor of her and the other 31 victims of last year's shootings.

Junior political science major Jennifer Lamb went on her first ASP trip one weekend last April. She described the experience as "really eye-opening."

"I didn't even realize poverty like that existed in the U.S.," Lamb said.

Although Lamb was glad she helped others for a weekend instead of pursuing selfish objectives, she said the trip was overwhelming because of "how much need there is and how much I can't do as one person."

She said she would definitely recommend that Tech students and faculty get involved with the project, even if they are not religious. Lamb explained that she probably wouldn't have gone on the trip without being inspired by the Cloyds' involvement.

While the Cloyds have initiated five trips to Central Appalachia, they want to hand over the leadership position to students. Lamb is helping to start up an on-campus student organization for the project with sophomore biological sciences major Kate Andrukonis. Andrukonis started attending ASP trips with her church in high school and was then employed as a staff member for the organization. She encourages students and faculty to get involved because "service in general is a fantastic way to get out and know a community better."

"It's a great way to bring groups of organizations at Tech together in kind of a hard-core environment," Andrukonis said.

She and the others involved with initiating the Tech organization of ASP volunteers plan to go on another trip during the second week of October. Anyone interested can look for information at the beginning of the fall semester. An online application process will be required for volunteers and space is limited for the next trip.