Grovers grieve TPUSA CEO’s death on quad
By Madeline McMahon · Contributing Writer
Students at Grove City College and colleges across the country held a moment of silence on Sept. 10 for two tragedies occurring that day. The first was a school shooting at Evergreen High School in Colorado. Not much information has been shared about the students present due to the privacy requests of the families. The second tragedy was the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the former CEO of Turning Point USA, at a Utah Valley University event.
In response to Kirk’s death, senior Bobby Hershey sent a message in the college’s spontaneous worship group chat with over 1,000 members. Hershey “wanted to do something as a community” to honor the life of Charlie Kirk and pray for those whom the shootings affected.
That evening, nearly 200 students gathered on the quad to honor Kirk and the other shooting victims. Hershey and a couple of other students held flags and led a time of silent reflection. Afterward, the students worshipped for over an hour.
“The way the students came together changed my life,” Hershey said.
Despite the somber mood of the day, this event turned into something special, encouraging those who attended. Many students at the college have expressed a heaviness of heart in response to these two “Christians have an important duty to speak against people, in love,” junior Nathan Devlin said.
Knowing that call to speak out in love, Hershey expressed that through this process, he has wondered, “Whose life is next?”
“People will be activated by this,” Devlin said. “And as was seen that night on the quad, and through many other colleges, students were.”
This feeling and experience has not been limited to Grove City College’s campus. Universities and colleges all over the nation, including Slippery Rock University, the University of Wyoming and Liberty University, held moments of silence and had speakers who addressed the student bodies.
“The fire for this generation and for the conservative Christian movement is not over – instead, it has fueled the fire,” Kayla Parker, executive events coordinator for the Turning Point USA student chapter at Liberty, said.
