Monday marks a solemn remembrance for Texas A&M University as it commemorates the 25th anniversary of the catastrophic bonfire collapse that claimed the lives of 12 people and left more than two dozen injured. According toKSAT, the university will hold a ceremony at the site of the tragedy at 2:42 a.m., the exact time the logs came tumbling down on November 18, 1999.
Despite the tragedy, the Aggie bonfire tradition has continued to persist off-campus, with a current student-led group taking steps to ensure the safety of its construction. The revival started as a brush fire in 2002, two years after the campus tradition was halted. We haven’t forgotten about them. And a lot of the families actually do come out here and support us. And to those that don’t, they appreciate what we do because we do it safely. Every 12 of those kids would have wanted this to continue because it’s the best tradition, Mason Taylor, head of the student-run bonfire, toldMSN.
On November 29, one night before the Texas A&M-Texas football game, this year s stack of logs is scheduled to burn, marking a particular significance as Texas has joined the SEC, rekindling an old rivalry. Preparations for this event began early in the year with students actively participating in the log-cutting and stacking process. “Prep for this started in January of last year, but then construction, I guess you could say, began in August with cut. So, during August, September, October, we’ll go out and actually cut the trees down by hand before we ship over here on those trailers and then start stacking, Taylor shared in a statement obtained byMSN.
While the off-campus event continues to draw support, Texas A&M itself has chosen not to officially reinstate the bonfire on campus. Last June, university President Mark Welsh III decided to maintain the memory of the bonfire in the university s past, “Bonfire, both a wonderful and tragic part of Aggie history, should remain in our treasured past, as stated inKSAT.
The Bonfire Memorial, dedicated on campus in 2003, remains a place of reflection, embodying the spirits of the fallen. A Bonfire Reflections Display, featuring photographs and information about each of the deceased Aggies, will be open to students and the public in the lead-up to the remembrance ceremony, confirming the university s commitment to never forget the lives tragically cut short in the collapse of 99.
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