On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting rampage, killing 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech and injured 17 more. Thursday, local members of the hokie nation came together in Sherando Park to remember all those who were killed at Virginia Tech.
It's been two years since Dennis Bluhm's son, Brian, was killed in the Virginia Tech massacre.
He was one of the 32 students and teachers to lose their lives in the deadliest school shooting in U.S history. He's now one of the 32 students and teachers being remembered in Stephens City at the Virginia Tech Memorial Garden near Sherando Park.
"The plaque that we worked with Bruce Wilson to put together, for Brian, he'd be very pleased with it," Bluhm said, "in fact he'd probably be a little embarrassed tonight, because he was kind of a quiet young man. He didn't like to take the spotlight a lot."
Many locals hokies and even some future hokies walked the grounds of the new memorial, taking in a plaque that displays the names of each of the students and teachers who died on campus.
"It's amazing what they've done in two years," Matthew Demerly, a junior at Sherando High School and hopeful future Tech student, said. "Definitely we will prevail, and it's great what they've done. I'm so happy because I've been a Tech fan, I love Sherando, so it's great seeing this here."
"it helps with a lot of the grieving," Linda Byers said. "It will help with the healing for people because it's been hard."
Byer's daughter used to be a Tech student.
The flag was the last thing to come to the site, coming up from the Tech campus where it flew up April 13th. The 32 stones at the base of the flag pole are also from the Blacksburg campus. This is the only site away from VT that you'll find a true "hokie" stone.
Two year's removed from the attacks on campus, local alumni chapter president, Bruce Wilson says all of hokie nation is still healing.
"We'll prevail," he said. "And, we will! I don't know that we have. We're still working at that and it's a constant struggle for me. There've been days that I've looked forward to coming to the garden, and there've been days that I didn't want to be here."
The local Tech alumni chapter also held a blood drive Thursday at the Youth Development Center. They were hoping to collect 100 pints of blood, they actually collected 142 pints.
