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Friday, April 20, 2007

Marching Virginians serenade patients

Those wounded in Monday's rampage continue to improve.

Wounded Virginia Tech freshman Hilary Strollo reacts to a serenade by the Virginia Tech marching band from the window of her room at  Montgomery General Hospital in Blacksburg on  Thursday.

Photos by Associated Press

Wounded Virginia Tech freshman Hilary Strollo reacts to a serenade by the Virginia Tech marching band from the window of her room at Montgomery General Hospital in Blacksburg on Thursday.

The Marching Virginians serenade victims of the shooting at Virginia Tech outside Montgomery General Hospital Thursday.

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The Marching Virginians call themselves the "Spirit of Tech," and on Thursday, the college band did what it could to cheer up victims of this week's campus shootings.

Standing at the main entrance of Montgomery Regional Hospital, band members serenaded eight fellow Hokies recovering from wounds they received during Monday's campus shooting. One of those students, Hilary Strollo, peeked out her window as the band played the "Hokey Pokey."

Strollo stood at the window, gazing down at her classmates with a smile.

"Let's go!" she suddenly called out.

After a surprised pause, the band shouted back in unison, "Hokies!"

Strollo, a 19-year-old sophomore, was shot three times. One bullet pierced her liver. She is listed in stable condition.

Scott Hill, the hospital's chief executive officer, said that not all the Hokie spirit was outside the hospital's walls.

"There's a lot of positivity in there," he said, expressing again his admiration for the students cared for in the hospital this week.

"They're working hard to recover," Hill said. "They're dragging our physical therapists down the hall."

Orthopedic surgeon Demian Yakel said some of the students will need physical and occupational therapy for a while, "as well as a general psychological healing."

But their positive attitudes and the support they've gotten from other Hokies are doing a lot to help in that department, Yakel said.

"You walk in and there's five other students in the room and they're talking and laughing," he said. "It's like they're having a mini-party in there."

The students have received so many flowers, Hill said, that they've asked that people who want to send more flowers contribute money to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund instead (www.vt.edu/tragedy/memorial_fund.php).

Two more students were discharged from Montgomery Regional on Thursday. Six remain, all in stable condition. Four are in the hospital's intensive care unit.

The last remaining victim at Lewis-Gale Medical Center was also discharged, as was one student who was at Carilion New River Valley Medical Center.

Two students remain in good condition at New River Valley. One is in serious condition at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

The Marching Virginians aren't finished playing for victims of Monday's rampage. About 100 band members plan to travel to Martinez, Ga., to play at a memorial service for Ryan Clark, a 22-year-old member of the Marching Virginians who was one of two students shot in West Ambler Johnston, the dormitory where the shootings began.

Clark -- his friends call him Stack -- was a resident adviser there. Clark, a member of Circle K, a student service organization, was also a triple-major who carried a 4.0 grade-point average and had his sights set on a doctoral degree in psychology.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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