by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
UNM students showed support for Virginia Tech on Wednesday by signing a banner in the SUB that reads, "Our Heart Goes Out 2 VT."
"The tragedy over there has affected our students," said Tanya Skinner, executive director of the Lobo Spirit Committee. "We're grieving because we are a community here, just like their campus."
The banner, a queen-sized bed sheet, was filled with more than 350 signatures within three hours, Skinner said.
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The committee made another banner for students to sign at a candlelight vigil at the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority Wednesday night, Skinner said.
If the second banner fills up, the committee will make another one so everyone gets a chance to sign, she said.
Skinner said the committee will send the banners to Virginia Tech next week.
She said everyone who walks by the banner is intrigued by it.
"It's bringing UNM together," she said. "Those random students who you don't usually see involved in anything are stopping and signing."
The banner is one thing UNM students can do for the people affected by the tragedy at Virginia Tech, said Brittany Jaeger, ASUNM president.
"Students have been asking what we could do to help," she said. "Anything will help - just knowing that people across the country are thinking of them."
Jaeger said UNM students have their differences, but everyone feels compassion for students at Virginia Tech.
"This (the banner) is a way that everyone can come together in the end for a common cause," she said.
Student Reid Howard said she signed the banner because she sympathizes with the victims and their families.
People should learn from the events at Virginia Tech,
Howard said.
"I hope that everyone can come through this a stronger person," she said.
Howard said knowing that so many people care will help
the victims.
"We're pretty far away, and what happened to them is touching our lives," she said.
Student Gabriel Gaarden said he signed the banner because he wants to do what he can amid the tragedy.
"Although a signature isn't much, it shows people that we're thinking about them," he said. "We can't even understand what they're going through. It's a
really hard time."
Gaarden said people tend to forget tragedy quickly.
"It's important to not just send a banner, and that's it," he said. "If we're going to make a big deal about it now, then let's make a big deal about it in the way that we live our lives and how we treat other people."
The most important thing people can do is talk about what happened, Gaarden said.
"It takes more than signing a banner," he said. "If we don't discuss it or try to understand it, then we're not going to get anything out of it."
