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Vigil held in University of Toledo student’s honor

Courtesy of Donovan Nichols

This banner was on display at the vigil for Chase located at the table where you could buy candy grams and bracelets to donate to a local suicide prevention centers.

Amanda Pitrof and Lauren Gilbert

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The dimly-lit auditorium was filled with about 200 people, sitting somberly in rows and listening intently to University of Toledo Pi Kappa Alpha President Mitchell Wiese, who stood on stage before them. As he talked, the lights slowly died down and he lit a candle. Weise exited the stage and walked to stand in front of the first row of people, still speaking, and began to light their candles. Each person with a newly-lit candle turned to light the candles of the people sitting behind them. The light spread from candle to candle, row to row, and before long, the room was illuminated by wavering light.

This demonstration opened the Jan. 21 vigil for Chase DuVall, a UT student and Pi Kappa Alpha member who died by suicide, and represented his light and how he shared that light with others. As candles were extinguished and the lights slowly raised, people got up on stage one by one to share stories from his life. Although the audience was made up of individual groups, they came together as a community of sharing stories and support with each other.

Below are stories from some people who knew Chase.

Tanner DuVall - brother

“My friend Lauren and my ex convinced me to join choir my senior year. However, I was pretty unaware of most all musicals. But there was one that everyone kept talking about, RENT. So I ask Chase if I can borrow his copy of it, and he agrees. I watch the movie nearly to its completion, and I swear to God, Chase had to of had his ear to the wall — because our rooms are adjacent to each other — because as soon as the funeral scene for Angel begins, I by no means cried, but I let out the smallest sniffle, and he bursts into my room ‘IS IT THE FUNERAL?! DID YOU CRY?’ I screamed at him ‘GET OUT!’ so from then on out he greeted me in the most flamboyant voice possible by saying ‘Brothers!’ which is a reference to RENT. I am not sure if he meant it as a way to mock me at first, but he did it for a good five years strong.”

Jason Trujillo – Pi Kappa Alpha brother

“The guys in Pike needed something to rally behind to keep them going, knowing that we’re still able to achieve good things and honor their friend at the same time. So when we put together the philanthropy in about five days, I actually didn’t think that a lot of people would come out for it, but a lot of people found out about it very quickly … we decided to call the philanthropy ‘Love from Chase’ because Chase was a very loving guy and we just loved having him in the fraternity and he just poured out his heart for anyone who needed comfort or anyone who just needed love. So when we decided to do candy grams so we could continue that message of love, it was like getting love from Chase, it was almost like a love letter.”

Jeff Jones

“He was somebody you could confide in. Again, for me personally, I was having issues with my sexuality and none of my fraternity brothers had known and once I met Chase and saw how confident he was, how he didn’t care what anybody thought, I confided in him my secret or whatever and he was really receptive and never … pressed me to tell other people or made it a big deal. We would talk about it just between us. He made it really comfortable for me to be who I am today.”

Tanner DuVall

“I was benching once, and Chase and I were the only two home. I didn’t think much of it; I usually lift alone. But for some background noise I decided to pop in a DVD, and the newest one we had was ‘Frozen’ and I had not yet seen it. So I am watching it, mid-bench, ‘Let it Go’ comes on and in bursts Chase screaming the lyrics, which causes me to lose focus, laugh, and drop the 300 lbs on my chest. I’m struggling to get it up and breathe, Chase is running in circles, ‘Oh my god! Oh my god! What do I do?!’ I’m trying to choke out, ‘Help me;’ he is still running around like crazy and I manage to usher him over by motioning a ‘come hither’ motion with my leg. Eventually I focus enough to push up, arch my back into it, and then have Chase lift the rest of the way. And by the time we get the bar on the bench he looks at his arms and goes, ‘Whew, I didn’t know how strong I was.’”

Jason Trujillo

“One of the things that I took away this past week was never be afraid to tell someone you love them because you never know when it will be the last chance you get to say you love them. Or even if that little, “Hey, I love you” to your buddy or a classmate or someone like that could be the difference between them being around and them not being around.”

Jeff Jones

“I think one thing I got away from [the vigil] was one of our other brothers had spoke and said that his life transcends death. Even though he’s not with us anymore, he still has an impact on everyone, and that’s especially true for me, because like I said, before, it was my little secret or whatever and I kept it with him, and at the vigil, I just came out to everybody, so he still has an impact on me today and he’s not here. That confidence that he had, I just want to be like that and give love the way he did.”

Patrick Ryan – friend and fellow Liftoff UT mentor

“Chase was a very open individual and he was all about, ‘You gotta love yourself first.’ And I think that was really awesome to see, that he was proud of who he was. And I think that helped a lot of other people, just by knowing him and seeing the confidence that he had, that poured out in other people and that paid dividends for people that were close to Chase and people that he had just barely met. And so, I think that what I’m going to remember most is the fact that he was always doing for other people and giving without any expectation of a reward.”

Tanner DuVall

Over the summer he and I went to California, because I was sent out there to help make a commercial for the Air Force, and everything was paid for, so I invited him out there, just because. I half jokingly told him my goal was to at least flirt with a California girl, as I am incredibly shy. So in the time I was not working we would explore the city, and even got to make our way out to Laguna Beach. But the most memorable moment of the entire trip, was coming home in LAX, the news that the Supreme Court ratified Gay Marriage as constitutional was announced so Chase jumped up and cheered, and showed me. I have been a gay marriage supporter for years so I also cheered, and as couples and people began to pass they would say things like, “We are so happy for you two,” and, “Love wins,” and I would try to protest, but before I could say anything Chase would grab my hand or something and say something along the lines of, “My partner and I couldn’t be happier.” Just to spite my goal of flirting with California girls. It was a funny story to tell later on.

Editor’s note: The online version of this story has been extended to include more stories.

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Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919.
Vigil held in University of Toledo student’s honor