I'm writing today to solicit a donation from you. But today, I'm not asking for money for a political campaign or cause. I'm requesting that you contribute money to the Hokies Standing Strong Fund so that we can help our brothers and sisters in Blacksburg heal.
The travesty that occurred this past Monday was senseless and unfathomable. As a student at George Mason and a former student of the University of Virginia I can tell you that both campuses are deeply saddened by what transpired, and that we stand in solidarity as Hokies.
There is no amount of money that will ever erase the pain of what happened, but it can help. The money raised by the Hokies Standing Strong Fund will be divided and given to two funds run by Virginia Tech University, with 75% going to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund and 25% going to the General Scholarship Fund.
The Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund was set up to "aid in the healing process and generate financial support.". The fund helps cover costs such as; grief counseling, memorials, communication expenses, comfort expenses and incidental needs. Please give generously, we should do everything we can to make sure that this is not any harder than it needs to be because of the financial situation of the student.
To be candid, I do not have the skill with words to express my sadness and sense of comradery that I feel with the Virginia Tech community. So I will ask you one more time to contribute to the Hokies Standing Strong Fund and leave you with the words of Nikki Giovanni, Virginia Tech English Professor, because today, we are all Hokies.
"We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail, we will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.
In Solidarity,
Nate de la Piedra