COLLEGE STATION, Texas (U-WIRE) — What started out as separate ideas of Texas A&M organizations and individual students has turned into a campus-wide project to support Virginia Tech in its time of tragedy. The project is a T-shirt sale at A&M and the University of Texas.

Among the many students wanting to lend a hand are freshmen mechanical engineering majors Stephen Peck and Bruce Brown, who put together a fundraiser for Virginia Tech. They worked with Tim Sweeney, interim director of Student Activities, to set up a meeting with A&M organizations and students interested in helping Virginia Tech.

One student at the meeting was Andria Groover, a junior communication major who first expressed an interest in doing something for Virginia Tech through her adviser, Katy King.

“After seeing the Virginia Tech colors were orange and maroon, we immediately thought of how Aggies and Longhorns have suffered terrible tragedies also,” Groover said. “We contacted the SBP at UT, and he then got us in contact with Jordan Davisson (executive director in Student Government at UT) and things took off from there.”

Members of MSC Aggie Leaders of Tomorrow made a banner for the student body to sign and are ordering another banner, Groover said.

During the past few days, those involved with the project contacted various departments on campus, talked to Aggie 96.1 and made announcements to groups such as Fish Camp.

“What is amazing, though, is that we technically only have the Facebook group, ‘Orange and Maroon support Orange and Maroon,’ and an e-mail address, [email protected],” Groover said. “However, by Friday afternoon we had received over 200 e-mails from all across Texas and the United States.”

The group received e-mails from Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., Colorado and Virginia, as well as other locations.

— Mindy Riffle

The Battalion