Two months since Brian Love's fatal snowboarding accident, University students are still feeling the momentum of Love's magnetic personality. Some 30 close acquaintances of Love have come together to organize a charity 5K race to be held April 9. The race is sponsored by groups in which Love had been actively involved, such as the Virginia Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding Team, Outdoors Club of Virginia and the Hereford and Brown Residential Colleges.
While a resident at Johnson dormitory last year, Love was his building's representative in the Hereford Student Senate. Along with his other hall-mates, Love organized and participated in a date auction during the Hereford Banquet, collecting a total sum of approximately $300.
The organization Love chose to receive the date auction's proceeds, Arc of the Piedmont Foundation, is the same charity to which the "Run in the Name of Love" race will donate. The Foundation provides funding and support for mentally handicapped children in the greater Charlottesville region.
"I think it takes an extraordinary person to bring this many people together even after he's not here anymore," Love's friend, second-year College student Melissa Georges, wrote in an e-mail to Susan Love, his mother, shortly after the accident.
Love's mother will be flying from California to attend the race, which will start at Runk Dining Hall and circle around back up to O'Hill Dining Hall -- a track course that takes advantage of the "outdoors" aspect of the run. A moment of silence and commemoration will precede the event at 9 a.m., and a reception will follow with food provided by local Charlottesville establishments.
Georges, who is helping to spearhead the charity race, discussed the initial intentions of the project.
"Everything [Love] did, he put his whole self into everything," Georges said. "I just remember the night that I found out he died -- I was just so sad because I thought 'Here I am, not even half of who he is.' I just wanted to do something for him."
For many, the shock of Love's sudden death has subsided to coping as students attempt to recreate Love's energy in the very way that Love himself enjoyed most: running outdoors.
Third-year College student Pat Leitch, Love's Resident Coordinator last year in Johnson, said he remembers the athletic zeal of his resident vividly. Leitch noted Love's surfboard propped conspicuously against his dormitory wall, his passion for skiing and affinity for running -- often at times when many other students still would have been asleep.
"Sometimes I would wake up around 10 a.m. on a Saturday and Brian would be all sweaty and I would say, 'Oh did you just wake up?' and he would say 'No, I just came back from running a 10-mile race.'"
Case Taintor, co-president of the Outdoors at U.Va. club, spoke fondly of Love showing his sense of humor during the club's backpacking trips. Taintor recalled one particular night when, as the tired hikers were resting side by side in a tent, Love revealed his mischievous side.
"Brian would steamroll over them with his sleeping bag," Taintor said. "And it'd be kind of funny, when people were sleeping."
The cooperation and camaraderie that has grown among Love's diverse group of friends -- brought together by a single common cause -- is a small rainbow in the tragedy.
"It was hard to get a hold of all of his friends -- he's got a lot of friends!" Georges laughed. "It's a very small world. I didn't' realize so many people could know one person. ... I didn't know the extent to how caring U.Va. is."
Georges noted the excitement and immediate support from professors and organizations she received when contacting them about the project. As the students worked together to secure a course, date and time for the race, they always reminisced about Love. But the general atmosphere has been lighthearted and fun -- striking a similarity to the carefree and happy attitude that many described Love as having.
Like Georges, Taintor has also extended his care for Love to individual members of the family. Love's sister Amy recently came to the University for a few days -- a trip she initially had planned for visiting her brother. She chose to come anyway.
According to Taintor, Love's sister was touched by the depth of sincerity in the community toward her brother. After his death, Beta Bridge had been painted to commemorate Love and was left untouched by the community for three weeks. And during a mountain biking trip, Taintor and Love's sister rode to the top of mountain, where they witnessed the prayer flags that had been hung to remember Love.
"She was kind of blown away by how nice everyone was, and was blown away by the community," Taintor said. "I think she just wanted to come back and see those people again and see U.Va. under different circumstances."
According to Love's friends, the sincerity of the students has mirrored the sincerity Love projected onto his peers. Taintor remembered the quickness in which Love organized backpacking trips, whether in California or Tennessee, and noted how Love's decisive spontaneity never lost its genuineness.
"If he wanted to do something, and if you wanted to do it, he would find a way to do it," Taintor said.
For Georges, the project has led to a more personal development in her life. Through the project, Georges said she has learned to delegate and execute tasks in an efficient manner. She noted her recent high score on a difficult chemistry exam as an example of the positive effect the race has had on her.
"It was the first one I had done well on all year, and I just thought to myself, I have been doing stuff for Brian, but ... I feel like he's helped me," she said. "Just by talking to all these people has been so motivating."
Taintor also has discovered a certain kind of beauty in the project though the impressive community response to Love's death.
This convergence of people may serve as evidence that Love achieved what he sought to do when he transferred to the University from the University of California-San Diego two years ago.
"I know that the biggest reason why he came to U.Va. was because he wanted to find a community," Taintor said. "Brian really didn't have a sense of community at [University of California-San Diego], and I know that Brian in his two years really did find his sense of community here at U.Va."
Taintor added one more wish for his friend.
"I hope he would feel good and know that he was loved," he said.
Registration for "In the Name of Love" Charity Race starts March 30 and will continue until April 9.
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