Collegiate Times

Robin Lawson wept silently as she carefully placed a pink birthday card against the wall.

“This birthday stuff is really getting to me,” she said.

Lawson, a 2007 Virginia Tech alumna, reached into the grey 18-gallon bin for the next handful of cards. She silently read one of them.

“Happy Birthday, Caitlin,” one card read. “We miss you.”

Caitlin Hammaren would have celebrated her 21st birthday on May 4.

She was killed less than three weeks before.

After four weeks of being on the Drillfield, the memorials were moved to an indoor location. Volunteers such as Robin Lawson, began the move on the night of Sunday, May 13.

Volunteers began to move vanloads of memorial items into Shultz at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14.

Mayflower volunteered workers and trucks for the operation and Shultz staff worked throughout the day, helping in any way possible.

Sumeet Bagai, a Hokies United leader, watched over the operation, directing movers and volunteers throughout the dining room floor.

Scott Cheatham, another Hokies United leader, drove back and forth from the Drillfield, collecting more items from the Hokie Stone memorials before the rain began to fall.

Dave Middleton, a mover from Mayflower, helped unload one of the 100-pound A-frame boards, on which lay thousands of signatures.

Matt Furman, another Mayflower mover, wiped the sweat from his face.

“I would have done it for free,” he said. It was his first day with Mayflower, but not one he will soon forget.

Ron Forbes, a volunteer with Hokies United, struggled to find room on one of the dozens of tables for some of the cards.

“It’s like playing Tetris,” he said.

At 5 p.m., the volunteers paused.

Some volunteers went to get water. Others slouched into the padded Shultz benches. Others looked through the memorial items.
One began to cry. Another quickly gave her a hug.

Adeel Khan, the president of the Student Government Association, answered his phone to hear that Cheatham was on his way back from the Drillfield.

The volunteers got back to work, meeting Cheatham by the front doors as he backed the white van onto the grass.

They quickly emptied the van and distributed the grey bins to each accompanying name.

By 6:45 p.m., they were finished.

“When do we have to move this stuff again?” one asked.

“We won’t have to,” Khan answered.

The dedicated volunteers have already moved the items three different times from the Drillfield to other locations throughout campus.

The items will stay in Shultz through July.

Students returning to classes will not see the same Drillfield that they left a few weeks ago. Lines of grassless Earth remind students where the memorials lived. Thirty-three Hokie Stones remain, accompanied by flowers that died long ago.

Squires Student Center has also changed since graduation.

Volunteers in Squires have begun the removal process of posters and cards. The process will take over two weeks, as volunteers remove and log each item in the building. The items will move to Commonwealth Ballroom, where they will be photographed.

There is no word of a permanent memorial, although a committee has convened to discuss possible solutions.