Collegiate Times

After the April 16 shooting, Virginia Tech received over 90,000 gifts of consolation from around the world.

  The archives are currently being held in the prevail archive room, located in the Corporate Research Center, but the university is trying to determine what should be done with all of the gifts received.

The prevail archive room has its own staff working to organize and photograph all of the items.  All of the archives must be moved out of the room by November; however, as of right now, they have nowhere to go.   

"When each item comes in, it is tagged, photographed and put into a database, but we are running out of space and time," said Steven Estrada, administrative assistant of University Unions & Student Activities, who is in charge of the prevail archives. "We have to be out of here by November and we're by no means finished with the photography."

Tech has received items from across the country and around the world, including letters from Argentina and the ambassador of Jamaica, a U.S. Coast Guard buoy with signatures of Tech graduates from Puerto Rico and a jacket with signatures of University of British Columbia engineers from Canada.

"Many people seem to think we received a few banners from other colleges. What they don't know is that we received banners from practically every single college and university in every single state and U.S. territory," Estrada said.  "This is one of the greatest displays on this campus."

Estrada said that they have received T-shirts from almost everywhere, all decorated with their own statements about the shootings.

"We have every category. You name the category and we have it," said Estrada. "Just for T-shirts alone we could have a museum."

Statues, plaques, quilts, stuffed animals, dolls, hats, wreaths and sporting goods are just a few of the categories of gifts received. Flags were a particularly large category, along with cards and candles.  

"We have a flag from the Talladega speedway, one from Afghanistan, one from both the Statue of Liberty and the capitol building, and also the flag that was flying on the White House on April 16," said Estrada. "We have thousands of cards and we have a vast number of candles."

All of the candles from the candlelight vigil can be found in the prevail archive room as well.  Estrada said that the Yankee Candle Company also sent boxes and boxes of candles.  

Seth Powers, the prevail archives team leader and a 2007 Tech graduate, has been working with the archives since July 2.

"You see the same objects over and over every day and your mind

just kind of wanders, but then you'll see something that kind of stands out and it hits you and you realize what they are here for," Powers

said.

Powers said that they received letters from an alternative high school in Flint, Mich. that described the students' own experiences with loss and tragedy.

"It brought a tear to my eye thinking about all the support they showed us when they deal with tragedy every day," Powers said.

Many items from those affected by the Columbine shooting arrived, as well as items from those affected by Sept. 11.

"It's more interesting to a degree how much this tragedy touched other people," said Eric Norris, a junior apparel, housing, and resource management major who works with the archives.  "Living in the area and talking to people here, I've gotten their reactions over time. But how it touched people from all over the world, and how they relate to it is really amazing to see through these gifts."

Though there have been many proposals for what to do with the - including a possible museum to house the collection - no decision has been made.

"I hope we will have an opportunity next year to let this community see what the world sent us and that our items will be recognized not as condolences but as great tributes, art, artifacts and great symbols of peace, as peace has been the one lesson we are always trying to understand," Estrada said. "It is not just the tragedy we are trying to remember; it is what the world did for us during that time that is just as, if not more, important."