Volunteers at the annual cleaning of Texas A&M’s bonfire memorial gateway portals includes for the first time, alumni from the University of Texas.
The president of the Brazos Valley chapter of the Texas Exes, Walter Hinkle, says they will be cleaning the portal of Michael Ebanks, who was one of the 12 Aggies who died in the Bonfire collapse.
Hinkle says Ebanks father was active in the local U-T alumni chapter until his unexpected death in September.
Hinkle says the Exes participation is also meant to carry on the spirit of U-T’s display of support at the two schools’ first football game following the tragedy.
Hinkle said the idea came from the treasurer of the local Exes chapter, Amy Vance, who works at A&M.
The cleaning is organized by the staff at A&M’s art galleries.
Click below to hear comments from Walter Hinkle, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver.
News release from Texas A&M:
As the 24th annual remembrance of the collapse of Aggie Bonfire approaches Nov. 18, preparations are being made for the evening’s ceremony, which includes cleaning the memorial site.
The cleaning will take place on Friday, Nov. 3, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., in two-hour shifts.
The Bonfire Memorial sits on the northeast side of campus, on the exact site where the stack collapsed at 2:42 a.m. on Nov. 18, 1999, killing 12 Aggies. Each fallen student is represented with a gateway structure which visitors can step into and symbolically fill the void left behind.
Texas A&M University Art Galleries staff spearheads the annual cleaning of the memorial and is being joined by volunteers including staff from the Division of Academic and Strategic Collaborations and members of Company D-1 from the Corps of Cadets. As of this writing, around 60 volunteers have signed up.
This year — for the first time — the volunteer roster includes alumni of the University of Texas, the Aggies’ longstanding athletic rival. Around 10 members of the Brazos Valley chapter of Texas Exes, UT’s alumni group, will participate in tomorrow’s service event.
“Rivalries don’t matter when it comes to selfless service and loss,” said Amanda Neel, collections manager for the galleries. “The Texas Exes’ participation in this year’s cleaning shows how greatly the collapse of the Bonfire affected not only the A&M community, but Texas as a whole.”
Walter Hinkle, president of the local Texas Exes chapter, says his group’s participation for the first time this year seems like a blessing of fate.
“We will be cleaning the portal of Michael Ebanks, son of the late Jerry Ebanks and his wife, Bulinda,” Hinkle said. “Jerry received his master’s degree at UT and was an active member of the Brazos Valley Texas Exes chapter.” Jerry Ebanks passed away unexpectedly on Sept 2.
“When we found out about the cleaning, we were very excited; we had no idea something like that was done every year. What an awesome opportunity to pay respect to the university and our friend Jerry and his son,” Hinkle said.
He added while it’s at a much smaller scale, the Texas Exes’ care of the memorial is meant also to carry on the spirit of UT’s display of support at the two schools’ first game following the tragedy.
Amy Vance, Texas Exes treasurer, plans to serve at the cleaning event; she works at A&M as the director of strategic initiatives in the Office of Workforce Development, College of Engineering.
“I happened to learn of the clean-up through a work email and suggested to the other officers that we participate,” Vance said. “We feel this is a way to show our respect to those who died and to demonstrate that, even as rivals, we can come together as a community for a greater good. I’m glad that we, as alumni of the University of Texas, can be a part of preserving the memories of those who died at the Bonfire. It is something that tied our two institutions together.”
There are around 110,000 members of the Texas Exes and, according to Vance, 120 members locally on the group’s active roster, and likely hundreds more in the Brazos Valley area.
Learn more about the Bonfire clean-up and volunteer at uart.tamu.edu/bonfire.
And read about Bonfire remembrance at bonfire.tamu.edu.