On Saturday, April 28, community gardens of maroon, orange and white
Hokie flowers will be planted throughout the region to memorialize the
lives lost in the April 16 shootings.
Hometown Industries, a service-learning program coordinated by
Perry Martin, and Chi Delta Alpha service sorority are collaborating to
develop the idea for the gardens.
“This project is a way to show unity between the campus and the
community,” said Martin, the assistant director of the Service-Learning
Center at Virginia Tech. “Everyone was hurt, but these gardens will be
a lasting, growing legacy that can provide healing.”
The national headquarters of Lowe’s Home Improvement stores
has agreed to donate 200 flats, which will yield thousands of flowers,
in maroon, orange and white varieties. A truck will deliver the flowers
early Saturday morning, along with soil donated by Home Depot, to the
various locations.
Gardens will be planted in various communities in the New
River Valley area: Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Eggleston, Pulaski,
Salem and Newport. Both popular places such as the New River Valley
Mall and individual residencies (a 104-year-old woman’s backyard in
Christiansburg) will become home to one of the 25 planned gardens.
Martin sent out e-mails to these areas a few days after the
shootings, trying to gauge interest and participation before organizing
the event. The various sites then contacted him, indicating their
desire to have a garden planted in their area.
As of now, temporary posters will be placed with the gardens, indicating the date of the shootings.
“Next year we hope to get stones engraved with the names of the
32 victims that can replace the temporary posters,” said Erica
Faulhaber, a junior biology major who is one of the service officers
for Chi Delta Alpha and the incoming president for the sorority. “We
want to make this an annual thing and might try to incorporate it into
our spring day of service.”
The event is open to the community on campus and off.
Interested people are encouraged to contact Martin at the Virginia Tech
Service-Learning Center at (540) 231-9186 in order to ensure adequate
transportation, but an R.S.V.P. is not mandatory. All participants
should plan to meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Duckpond Overflow Parking Lot
19 near Oak Lane this coming Saturday.
So far, 250 students have given their R.S.V.P., as well as 11 other campus organizations and academic classes.
“We had a lot more feedback than expected, but that’s a good
thing,” Faulhaber said. “I know doing service is how me and my sisters
cope with the situation.”
