These are the ties that bind

JULIAN WALKER / WSLS NewsChannel 10
Published: April 22, 2007

Virginia Tech and the neighboring town of Blacksburg have always been linked. Last week's tragedy has made the link even stronger.

Blacksburg was established in 1871. The school was founded a year later.

Now the school's campus, a sprawling expanse of buildings made of native limestone, known locally as Hokie Stone, snuggles tightly against the town.

The central feature of the campus is the Drillfield, which has been surveyed by thousands of civil engineering students and marched by thousands of ROTC students.

Today, the Drillfield is the main street of the campus, the primary pathway connecting the compass points of the university.

A 5-minute walk away is downtown Blacksburg, a five-block stretch of shops, services, businesses and restaurants.

Many of the town's buildings are older brick structures, though newer buildings signaling new investment and development punctuate plots of downtown real estate.

Two Starbucks coffee houses have opened recently in the town of 40,000, where students make up 60 percent of the town's population, according to the 2000 census.

Roya Nazare's shop, Gourmet Pantry, a kitchen and food shop, is one of the newer buildings along Main Street.

"Without the Tech students, we wouldn't survive. . . . This town wouldn't exist, and that's a fact," said Nazare, who has been a business owner in the community for 18 years.

She said students take cooking classes offered at her shop, pop in for a cup of coffee or some chocolate, or to buy a gift basket for their parents. Some Tech students are familiar faces to Nazare.

"That's why this hurts so much," she said of Monday's shootings.

Three shops stocked with maroon and orange Tech paraphernalia sit on one block of the main downtown strip - two on one side of the street, one on the other.

Banners bearing Tech's colors are commonplace in Blacksburg, especially on the eve of a major sporting events. Those banners continue to fly, but now they've been joined by ribbons of sorrow tied around trees and lampposts.

Students and locals were still milling about downtown last week though the foot traffic seemed less than usual.

Hampton Forbes, manager of Danny's World Famous Ancient Art Tattoo & Body Piercing shop who came to Blacksburg three years ago said the link between Tech and the town doesn't compare to his own college experience at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del.

"It was nothing like this," he said. As Forbes applied some fresh ink in the shape and colors of "VT" on the right foot of Tech senior Ashley Hawks, he said, "These kids are who we are."

"We're all tight," Forbes continued, noting that he had done more than 30 "VT" tattoos since the shootings. "We can't be who we are without the school."

Forbes estimates his client base is an even mix of locals and students.

Indeed, Tech is a significant source of revenue in Blacksburg, according to the Blacksburg Partnership, a local economic development organization.

University students pump an estimated $126 million into the local economy annually, and university employees generate $224 million in disposable income each year.

"It's a great, great relationship," said Christopher S. Lawrence, assistant to the town manager. "It has been, it still is, and it will be even stronger in the future."

While people near and far have grieved with Tech, the larger Blacksburg community has played a crucial role in coping with the shootings. It is during these tough times that the affinity folks feel for the university community is especially apparent.

"So many of us are so bruised," Lana Juarez, owner of Matrix Gallery, in downtown, said Friday afternoon.

"Everybody respects each other," continued Juarez, a Tech grad who decided to stay after her college days. "We love each other, and we value each other. That's how it feels today. It's a little calmer, but we can still cry at the drop of a dime."

During the past emotional week, a morning show on a Roanoke radio station served as a crossroads of gossip, anger, sorrow and tragedy for residents throughout the Roanoke Valley.

Usually given to light banter and the top-40 playlist, the morning show extended long into the afternoon most days.

Some days, hosts Danny Meyers, 32, and Zack Jackson, 31, openly wept.

They broadcast drives for memorial ribbons, for yarn to knit mourning shawls and a plea for more cars to transport families swamped in the parking lot of the airport.

And after the broadcast of the Cho tapes, the two radio hosts immediately decided not to air them.

"I heard a student say he didn't care who the shooter was, that all he knew was that he would never see his sister again. That sealed it for me," Jackson said.

Jackson said the weeklong experience reflected a range of emotions that will serve of as a microcosm of what's to come in months and years ahead.

"To me, it brought to this place where we live what it must have been like in the communities where 9/11 took place," Jackson said. "The way the people reacted here, their love for one another and the care they show one another, for me, means that this is the place that will forever be my home. It cements my sense of where I want to live."

Contact staff writer Julian Walker at or (804) 649-6831.

Bill McKelway is a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch.