idav, November IDAYNOVEMBER 16, 2001 Texas A&M University — Celebrating 125 Years 1 SECTION • 12 PAGES “Students don’t want to have to relive it again and again. Students just want to get through it in their own way and not go through another big ceremony and not relive those painful memories.” — Schuyler Houser, student body president [TWO YEARS LATER J| As • THE BATTX eness Week, PH! change for cair fightf UIKI STAN jsturn rolled his do® Nov. 9: itwasttefrr the northern ate s Khalis controlsW' ires himself than and norther * Jalalabad Faction of RatoiiJ northern alliance***', the city Tueatt at from Happy He 8:00 p.m, Ever) 1 All Night W 1 Thunda’ all on a 217 Unmrsitf 979-1 »tcs on LivcM ; mn he web velrycoi /'tout Uldl Families, students to hold personal vigils on Polo Fields By Sommer Bunge THE BATTALION The crowd of students gathered on the Polo Fields at 2:42 a.m. Nov. 18, 2000, was not much different than the Aggies who stood there a year before. They had a love for Aggie Bonfire and they shared a commitment to a University and a way of life that had shaped, and then in 1999 changed, Aggie lives. The difference in 2000 was that the Aggie family was 12 members short. They stood in the mud and cold rain, a sea of Bonfire pots held over hearts, looking through to the central flame to memorialize the victims of the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse. Though the University will make no official observation this Sunday of the second anniversary of Bonfire’s collapse, the families and friends of the 12 Aggies killed and 27 injured when the three-tiered stack fell to the ground said they cannot and will not ever forget. The families said they will have their own memorials. Christopher David Breen spent the evening of Nov. 17, 1999, with his brother and his father watching the sunset from his brother’s back porch. Breen, a 1997 A&M graduate active in building Bonfire while he was a student, was working on the stack when it groaned and fell in seven frantic seconds early the next morning, and was killed. Breen’s brother Sean Breen, an Austin attor ney, said the family will gather on his back porch in the hills outside of Austin this Saturday, Nov. 17, to watch the sunset and to remember Chris’ last sunset two years before. “It was the last time we saw Chris alive,” he said. Breen said the family will always come together on the date of Chris’ death. Janice and Timothy Kerlee Sr. lost their only son, Timothy Doran Kerlee Jr., 42 hours after the stack he hung from in a safety belt toppled. The Kerlees left their home in Memphis, Tenn., and arrived at the hospital just as Tim Jr., a \7-year-old Corps of Cadets freshman, emerged from surgery. Doctors told the Kerlees he had almost died three times on the surgeon’s table. Janice Kerlee said she had been given the chance to say goodbye to her son in the time she and her husband spent with Tim Jr. before he died at 8 p.m., Nov. 19, 1999. The Kerlees soon moved to College Station, called by God, Janice Kerlee said, to begin the healing process at A&M. The Kerlees are active members of the A&M community and now serve in college ministries at the A&M United Methodist Church. This summer, the couple hosted two students from their son’s Corps outfit who needed to attend summer school but could not afford rent for an apartment. Janice Kerlee said this week has been one of the hardest since the collapse. “You’ll cry a lot, and it’s very emotional,” she said. “Any anniver sary of death is hard.” The Kerlees will be at the site of the 1999 Bonfire at 2:42 a.m. Sunday morning with candles and prayers. Other families will be there, Janice Kerlee said, and she expects that some students, mostly juniors and seniors who knew the victims and who were on campus when Bonfire fell, also will be there, silently holding their own vigils and singing “Amazing Grace.” FILE PHOTO • THE BATTALION Aggies held candlelight remembrances on the Polo Fields Nov. 25, 1999 and Nov. 18, 2000. CODYWAGES • THE BATTALION The 1998 Aggie Bonfire was the most recent student-organized Bonfire and burned Nov. 24, 1998 — the Tuesday before the University of Texas-Texas A&M football game. Families: A&M should have memorial By Sommer Bunge THE BATTALION all 177 Families of the victims of the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse said they are lisappointed that Texas A&M admin istrators chose not to have an official memorial service on the two-year anniversary of the collapse this Sunday. Administrators announced in early ctober that the University was not holding a memorial service on Nov. 18. Instead, Student Body President Schuyler Houser said, students would individually remember the collapse victims. “Students don’t want to have to relive it again and again,” Houser said in October. “Students just want to get through it in their own way and not go through another big ceremony and relive those painful memories.” The families said memories are all they have. Janice Kerlee, mother of Bonfire victim Timothy Kerlee, Jr., said she and other families were saddened that the University has not planned a memorial service. “I was hoping it would become a University tradition,” she said. “It still may continue, through the students, but I know we and a lot of parents are dis appointed.” The A&M Traditions Council hand ed out more than 40,000 candles to stu dents attending the memorial held last year on the Polo Fields at the site of the Nov. 18, 1999 collapse. Students began gathering shortly after midnight in the cold rain for the ceremony that began at 2:42 a.m., the time Bonfire fell in 1999. Ten of the 12 victims’ families were present that night, and the other two families were represented by close friends. Before the service last year, Neva Hand, mother of Bonfire victim Jamie Hand, told reporters that the families needed to share the moment with students. “The collapse was shared by thou sands of people,” Hand said. “There’s nothing that helps the grieving more than to receive support from people who care.” Janice Kerlee said she blames the lack of an official observation this year on the See Families on page 2. Bonfire ready to burn Students build off-campus fire By BRANDIE LiFFICK THE BATTALION An off-campus Bonfire not sanctioned by Texas A&M has been built at an undisclosed location and will burn within the next week, said Kevin Jackson, one of the organizers of the project and a junior engineering major and. “It will be burned soon,” Jackson said. Jackson, a former resident of Hotard Hall, said partici pants are a combination of current and former students, and are not associated with any University group. “This is not a Bonfire endorsed by Hotard Hall or any residence hall singular ly,” Jackson said. Jackson said the cut process started approximate ly four weeks ago, but plan ning started when University President Dr. Ray M. Bowen postponed Bonfire in June of 2000, after the 1999 Aggie Bonfire collapse that killed 1 1 students and one former student. Jackson said the structure resembles a “lean-to,” with a centerpole and logs leaned and secured against it. Although Jackson would not reveal the location or dimensions of the stack, he said it was “puny” compared to the 1997 Bonfire. “It’s like the size of an adolescent child compared to an adult,” Jackson said. On Tuesday, Director of Residence Life Ron Sasse announced that rumors of an off-campus Bonfire built by Hotard Hall residences had been investigated by Residence Life and that the search turned up nothing. Schuyler Houser, student body president and a member of the 2002 Bonfire Planning Committee, said an off-cam pus Bonfire might possibly impede the planning process for a University-approved, on-campus fire. “I really don’t know what effect this will have on Bonfire 2002,” Houser said. “It will certainly open discus sion that could set back the process. I hope that students are considering all the ramifi cations of this.” Jackson said safety and leadership were emphasized in the building process of the stack. “Safety was the major thing,” Jackson said. “The plans were approved by a professional engineer. There was an absolute zero toler ance of drinking. Everybody was monitored at all times. See Off Campus on page 2.