Event photo by Aimee Alexander/Crow’s Nest.
Keeley Sheehan
Managing Editor
The day was filled with more smiles than tears—he would have wanted it that way.
Students and faculty from the journalism department gathered by the Harborwalk fountain Wednesday, Feb. 16 to honor the life of Aaron Moe, a JMS graduate student who died last year.
Attendees dressed in purple—Moe’s favorite color—and ate cake decorated with purple frosting to celebrate his birthday, to keep the day as positive as the person they were celebrating. He would have been 25.
Moe graduated from the University at Buffalo in 2009, starting his first year of graduate school at USF St. Petersburg in fall 2009. Moe died of pneumonia on Feb. 19, 2010, after entering the hospital a few days prior for minor eye surgery.
“We had so short of a time to be with him, and all that he would want is for us to be together,” said Lottie Watts, a graduate student in the journalism department. “He was my first friend when I moved here, so he’ll always have that special place in my heart.”
Watts and student Amanda Smolen planned the memorial to give Moe’s St. Petersburg friends a chance to share their memories of the man many said had a knack for bringing people together and making everyone feel welcome.
“He was only here with us for a semester, and a month and a half, and this is what he did,” Smolen said, gesturing to the crowd. “He was the glue that held us together. … To Aaron, [cliques] didn’t exist, everyone was included.”
Watts and Smolen, with the help of Moe’s friends, plan to make a donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and Northern Florida in his name.
“He would want his spirit to live on through our generosity,” Watts said.
After sharing memories of him, the group released purple and white balloons in celebration of the friend so many said they would never forget.
“Whether there’s this afterlife or not, he’s still here,” said Chris Dorsey, a graduate journalism student. “He’s in our brains, our memory, so he’s still here.”
