While rain swept Eau Claire, May 6, city and campus community gathered to remember students and faculty who passed in the last year.

Inside the Dakota Ballroom in the Davies Center, spectators — some white-haired and one newborn reclining stage-left in a stroller — perched on four rows of folding chairs, May 6, facing a silent grand piano, a stage dotted with potted bamboo and mother-in-law’s tongue plants for UW-Eau Claire’s third-annual Day of Remembrance.

Eight Eau Claire students have died in the last year — three since April 21.

“Being a Blugod is more than sharing this campus space with each other, it’s about sharing our connections, our paths and our dreams,” Abhold said. “As a community we gather in times of celebration and joy as well as times of loss and sadness.”

The campus community mourned the death of Caleb Gustafson, a sophomore psychology major, after his body was found in Putnam Park, April 21.

Authorities in Stillwater, Minn. pulled the body of Abbey Russell, a former Eau Claire student, from the St Croix river May 3, three days before the day of the memorial event. Russell disappeared in late April and had been missing more than a week.

And on May 7, a day after Eau Claire’s memorial event, Abhold, in an email, announced the death of Matthew Tyler Whittenberger, a junior political science major.

Eau Claire Dean of Students Joseph Abhold read aloud the names of 11 emeriti and retired Eau Claire faculty and staff, and seven students that passed away from illness, accidents or suicide since last May.

Abhold also listed recently enrolled former students Matthew G. Thompson, Jacob Martell and Russell,

Each name was punctuated by the tone of a chime and brief silent moment.

“Every loss is private and individual,” Abhold said. “But being part of a community that provides and accepts support is vital to be human.”

Eau Claire held the first day of remembrance in May 2013 after nine students and one faculty member died that year. In five years prior to that event, 19 Eau Claire students died, The Spectator reported then.

Beth Hellwig, Eau Claire’s Vice Chancellor, addressed the crowd to close the event.

“Perhaps they are not stars in the sky,” Hellwig said before the crowd, quoting a poem. “But rather openings where the love of our lost ones shines down to let us know they are happy.”