At exactly 2:03 p.m. on Friday, this year’s 35 Remembrance Scholars and two Lockerbie Scholars filed out of Hall of Languages, wearing white buttons and orange ribbons and each carrying a single rose.

After the students walked down the two pathways in single file in front of Hall of Languages, Summer Schneider, a Remembrance Scholar who represented Gary Colasanti, began the ceremony. She explained the purpose of the event to those in attendance, which included families and friends of the victims of Pan Am Flight 103, and members of the Syracuse University community.

On Dec. 21, 1988, at 2:03 p.m., Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 on board, including 35 SU students, and 11 others on the ground.

Every year, SU holds Remembrance Week, an annual event to honor the lives lost in the bombing. The 35 Remembrance Scholars each represent one of the SU students who died in the terrorist attack. The Rose Laying Ceremony, held Friday afternoon, is an annual part of the week of events and takes place at the Remembrance Wall in front of Hall of Languages.

Schneider said the Rose Laying Ceremony was the emotional piece of Remembrance Week. One at a time, each Remembrance Scholar walked up to a microphone at the Remembrance Wall and said a few words about the student they represented. Then they laid a rose on the wall in their memory.

“I think its very important, especially through this ceremony, but through the entire week and the rest of the year, that the scholars and the rest of the university remember who they were and that they wanted to do good things for the world,” Schneider said.

Family members and close friends of those who died in the bombing attended the ceremony. In addition, about 100 community members attended the event, surrounding the Remembrance Wall and lining the paths up toward Hall of Languages.

Schneider, a senior advertising major, said leading up to the ceremony, she and the other scholars felt more connected with the students they were representing. She said she thinks that was evident when the scholars got emotional while speaking about people they had never met before.

Kanique Swinson, a Remembrance Scholar, represented Theodora Cohen, a theatre student who was flying home from London. Swinson said she chose to represent Cohen because of their mutual passion for drama and the arts.

She said the ceremony was more powerful than she could have ever imagined it being and that it was an honor to “basically carry on the life of someone who has passed on.”

“I feel like it connected to a lot of people in the audience and I feel like everyone at Syracuse has a better understanding of what they represented and how important it is to look back and act forward in remembrance,” Swinson said.

Ellen Boomer and Joanna Barrie, the 2015-16 Lockerbie Scholars, spoke after the 35 Remembrance Scholars had finished. They talked about the impact the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing had on the town of Lockerbie.

Judy O’Rourke, who is retiring after this semester and has spent much of her 34 years at SU working on Remembrance Week events, thanked the Remembrance Scholars for the service-filled week they planned leading up to the event and the alumni in attendance and around the world who volunteered during the week in honor of the students they previously represented.

At 2:30 p.m., a bagpipe player stood and played on the lawn between the Remembrance Wall and Hall of Languages. The ceremony concluded a few minutes later, and was followed by a convocation event in Hendricks Chapel.

Published on October 30, 2015 at 6:59 pm

Contact Katelyn: kmfaubel@syr.edu