ASL 5K Memorial

The Appalachian School of Law held its 5K Memorial on Saturday, March 17th, 2012.  This Memorial race marked the 10 year anniversary of the horrible tragedy that shook the school and the surrounding community.  Grundy Virginia was a small, quite, peaceful town but the events on January 16, 2002 changed the town forever.  The town was incredibly proud when the Appalachian School of Law began accepting students in 1997.  No one knew that a student from Nigeria would one day come to the school and take the lives of three people.  Dean Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales were all three killed and three other students were wounded.

The following days, months, and years ahead have been a healing time.  The school planted trees in memory of the victims on the front lawn of the school and have each year held a 5K Memorial Race.  The GFWC Grundy Woman's Club wanted to participate this year and decided to set up water stations to hand out water to the runners.

Five water stations were set up along the course.  When the tired and thirsty runners came by, a bottle of water that had a label attached reading GFWC Grundy Woman's Club, was handed to them.

In an effort to make sure runners could find the water stations, we made a few signs, fluorescent of course.

Just in case they were color blind we all dressed in our green St. Patrick shirts to catch their eyes.

Bertha and I were lucky enough to have an Irish Leprechaun named Matt from Montana helping us.  I think his skirt looked great.

The Woman's Club is an important part of the community, and though the events of the January can never be changed, we hope that in a small way we can help make sure they are never forgotten.