Queen to meet Virginia Tech massacre survivors
Plans are being made for the Queen to visit with some survivors of last week’s shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, according to reports from the US tonight.
The Queen wanted to reach out to students after last week’s killings of 32 people on Tech’s campus, said three sources who wished not to be identified because details are not yet complete.
Her visit with Virginia Tech students will be part of the Queen’s first visit to the Capitol and the only address ever by the British crown to the state’s General Assembly.
The Queen visits Williamsburg, Virginia, on Thursday evening and Jamestown, Virginia, on Friday as part of the 400th anniversary commemoration of the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America.
Among the Tech representatives being considered for a visit with England’s monarch are some of the 26 students wounded in the shootings who have recovered sufficiently to travel.
Before her speech to the House of Delegates, the successor to the British colonial House of Burgesses, and the Senate, the Queen will be greeted at the Executive Mansion by Governor Timothy M. Kaine and First Lady Anne Holton.
Together, they will walk briefly around the grounds of the freshly renovated state Capitol.
Before the Queen’s arrival, thousands of spectators are expected to stake out spots on Capitol Square to glimpse the Queen and listen to a day of music by 14 Virginia musical groups, including Grammy-winning bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley.
