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Students, staff, faculty and alumnus of Sam Houston State University that have passed in the last year were honored on Friday at the Second Annual Raven’s Call under the bell tower.
Raven’s Call honored about thirty honorees according to Andrew Colarusso, Orange Key chair of the event. This included eight students, four faculty or staff members, and 17 retired faculty and staff members and honorary Bearkat, Fred Gibson, President Dana Gibson’s father.
“It was moving and beautiful. The balloons were prefect. It was just very moving,” Marianne Gibson, wife of Fred Gibson and mother of Dana Gibson said.
SHSU student Brittany Averitt’s mom, Lynn Averitt, said that Ravens Call helped her grieve.
“It kind of brings some sense of peace to us to hear what they have to say about her,” Lynn Averitt said.
One of Brittany Averitt’s friends, Terra Bowen, loved the tribute to everyone and remembered her “laugh and sweet smile.”
Colarusso came to realize what Raven’s Call really meant a few weeks before the event.
“Just a few weeks ago I experienced a tremendous loss of my own,” Colarusso said. “I realized we must remember our loved one not for the suffering their death has brought us, but for the legacy they will leave behind.”
Family members and friends of people who have passed were in tears while Dean of Students John Yarabeck called out their names and the bell tower rang three times.
Kalyn Cavazos, president of the Orange Keys said how the event came to be.
“Raven’s call was brought forth to us by a parent who had lost their student,” Cavazos said.