AUSTIN (KXAN) Dozens of University of Texas at Austin students and community members crowded in front of the UT Tower Tuesday night to honor the victims of the deadly Texas flood.
Green ribbon adorned the corners of shirts as speakers addressed the crowd and attendees held candles.
Brooklynn Hawthorne, who was not at Camp Mystic this summer but attended the camp for 10 years, expressed her appreciation to the entire country who has rallied behind Central Texas.
“Being a camper is one thing, and being someone who was actually at the camp during the tragedy is another thing, but I just love everyone banning together, throughout honestly the entire United States, behind Kerr County and Hunt Texas, Ingram Texas and Kerrville Texas,” the UT student told affiliate KXAN.
Hawthorne, who said the camp meant “everything” to her, has spent her past days supporting Camp Mystic campers who were at the grounds when the flooding occurred.
The vigil, hosted by the University Panhellenic Council and the Kappa chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, honored all victims including Chloe Childress and Katherine Ferruzzo, who were set to begin at UT in the fall. Childress is a confirmed victims of the floods while Ferruzzo is still missing. Both were counselors at Camp Mystic at the time.
Zeta chapter president, Emma Grace Alvey, said she was overwhelmed by the turnout of community.
“It was really inspiring. There were so many familiar faces… and there were also so many unfamiliar faces, people who are just here from the community, looking for a way to pray and support,” Alvey said to KXAN.
Alvey, who did not attend Camp Mystic herself, didn’t feel like a statement on her sorority’s social media account was enough, so she reached out to the other UT chapter presidents to join in on the event.
“I just wanted to bring people together,” she said. “The only thing I could think of to do and help anyone was pray, and so I kind of thought, ‘Well, I guess I can just get more people to pray with me.'”
One speaker at the vigil was UT Student Seth Hendricks, who grew up in Kerrville, and was present for the Independence Day Floods. As someone from the area, he said it now looks nothing like home.
“You’re smelling the smell of just rotting wood and trash and all the things that are in all this debris. And so it all kind of combines to make a pretty grisly scene out there,” Hendricks said. “This is our home, and a home that we pride on being very, very beautiful and homey, and it is. It couldn’t be farther from that right now.”
Hendricks’ father is the director of Laity Lodge Youth Camp, another Christian summer camp near Camp Mystic. He said as someone familiar with Hill Country camp life, seeing debris including children’s clothing and camp canoes was a shock.
“You’re shocked because typically, these [camps] represent home away from home, a place for kids to go out and be very carefree,” Hendricks said. “For it to be strewn about with these items from children, items from cabins, it’s surreal in the worst way possible.”
