Vigil held for 9/11, Katrina victims
Students and residence hall employees gathered yesterday for a candlelight vigil to remember the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 four years later.
About 30 students attended the small vigil in the Highland Commons plaza, organized by the Posada San Pedro residence hall council and hall director Ailton Coleman, to remember and share experiences from Sept. 11 and also to honor the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Coleman, a public health graduate student, said he wanted to organize event so students could have an opportunity to share their experiences and support each other in a time of tragedy.
The ceremony began with an introduction by a student calling on her peers to "honor fallen heroes and reject forces of evil," like the attacks of Sept. 11.
Bryan Fassman, an undeclared freshman from Long Island, New York, shared his experiences from Sept. 11, telling the attendees "I didn't believe it could actually happen."
Fassman said he was a freshman in a high school when the World Trade Center towers were hit, and when he heard actual confirmation on the radio of what had happened, he began to cry and worry about his father who was working in the city at the time of the attacks.
Nic Harrison, a resident assistant in Posada San Pedro, asked the students to think of themselves as citizens of humanity, and make an effort to make the world a better place by putting themselves in another person's shoes to understand how others are suffering.
"It's good to stop and remember events like September 11th on the day it happened so daily events don't overshadow those bigger events in life," said Harrison, a management information systems and operational management senior.
After the speakers, Coleman and resident assistants distributed candles to the students and they observed a moment of silence.
Coleman said the hall council is also planning a community outreach project where they will collect donations and volunteer at a food bank to package supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims.