Photos by MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

The Virginia Tech Union sponsored a climbing wall and bungee jump activity during Sunday's picnic on the Drillfield.

MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Roses lie on the gravel of the April 16 Memorial on the Drillfield during the picnic Sunday.

Above: Freshman volunteers Nathan Lavinka and Katie McGuire serve up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Below: Members of the student-run a cappella group Juxtaposition get the entertainment started Sunday.

Above: Freshman volunteers Nathan Lavinka and Katie McGuire serve up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Below: Members of the student-run a cappella group Juxtaposition get the entertainment started Sunday.

BLACKSBURG -- With so many tears shed in the past year, the rain seemed appropriate here Sunday morning.

But it was even more fitting that the rain stopped at exactly 1 p.m., just as the Hokie Spirit Community Picnic began.

"It's beautiful out," Virginia Tech police Officer Stephanie Henley said as she walked the Drillfield with fellow officers Bill Palmer and Paul Vinson. "There's a bigger turnout than I thought it would be. It's bringing the community in."

Calling the event "peaceful and relaxing," Henley said she was glad to be part of it.

"It takes our minds off the negative stuff," agreed Vinson.

Indeed, the gathering of students, university employees and folks from the community seemed to fulfill its purpose.

Jen Vaziralli, co-director of the Virginia Tech Student Government Association's community initiatives, said last week that the picnic -- created by students after last year's April 16 tragedy as a way to show solidarity -- is meant to "remind the students of those we lost, but even more so of the great community that we're a part of."

The Hokie stone memorials provided a centerpiece at the Drillfield, and many who came Sunday spent some quiet time filing past the stones, still decorated with flowers and mementos from Wednesday's first anniversary observance of the tragedy.

P.J. and Brian Neice of Pearisburg visited the memorial with their 2½-year-old son, Brayden, before moving on to enjoy the food, games and music that filled the Drillfield.

"It brings everybody together. It eases the pain. I think every year, it will get bigger and bigger," said Brian Neice, 31.

"It's some real good people around this area," Neice added. "A lot of good-hearted country people."

His wife, 27-year-old P.J., said she knew Narrows native Jarrett Lane and worked with Leslie Sherman and Ryan Clark at the West End Market on campus. She said she wanted to honor the three shooting victims by attending the picnic with her family.

Telena Robinson, a Virginia Tech freshman who didn't experience the tragedy firsthand, said she came because "everybody was encouraging everybody to come out."

Robinson said she never hesitated about coming to Tech after last year's campus shootings.

"It wasn't a hard decision. I got accepted so I came," she said. "It's been a great year. It's been fun."

The students at Sunday's picnic were delighted with the free food and giveaways. Many of Blacksburg's favorite restaurants handed out pizza, barbecue, hot dogs, drinks, ice cream, cookies and even peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Using plastic knives and spoons, freshmen Nathan Lavinka and Katie McGuire globbed peanut butter on bread while Mary Jane Riguera and Stacy Thompson handled jelly duty.

"We don't even know how many sandwiches we've made," Riguera said, grinning.

"If we could count, it would be amazing," Thompson echoed.

Students Andy Webb and Lauren Wingfield volunteered to make cookies for the event. With dough donated by Otis Spunkmeyer Inc., Wingfield said, students baked 15,000 cookies. She said she ate a few of them.

"It took 20 hours of straight baking," Wingfield said.

"Yeah," groaned Webb. "I don't even want to smell them anymore."

Tim Bayse, a doctoral student in civil engineering, chose last year to go home rather than attend the picnic. He came this year, he said, because he thinks it is a wonderful gesture.

"We have to just keep doing what we're doing," he said. "We try to move on."