Aggies gathered Thursday night at Rudder Fountain Plaza for a candlelight vigil in honor of those who died in the recent 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal.
Sudiskshya Bhandari, mechanical engineering sophomore and public relations officer of the Nepalese Student Association, NSA, said the group decided to hold a candlelight vigil soon after hearing about the devastation in Nepal and she expected over 200 students to come out.
“We’ve been planning this within the last couple of days, it’s been really busy,” Bhandari said. “ There were people who approached us and asked us what we were doing here at Texas A&M, like if we were doing a candlelight vigil of something for the lost souls. That encouraged us, that more and more people are supporting Nepal right now and that we needed to do something here with all the other students at Texas A&M.”
Nepalese locals from the College Station area used tea-light candles to make an outline saying ‘Pray For Nepal,’ which onlookers added to on the outskirts of the words at the conclusion of the ceremony.  The NSA said it hopes to gather enough funds through donations to reach their goal of $15,000 by the end of the week.
“Right now we are planning on either having the donations become a relief fund or a fund for the Red Cross Society,” Bhandari said.
The NSA and Aggie Mountain Volunteering Association, earlier on in the semester, had been planning a trip to Nepal to help a village just outside of Kathmandu, said nutrition sophomore Chandler Smith. 
“The earthquake kind of put [the trip] on hold,” Smith said. “That got me involved with the Nepalese Student Association because they have families that live there. It’s been hard for everyone.”
Jessica Bhandari, volunteer coordinator for the NSA said she was in charge of the trip and the village they planned to go to has been completely destroyed, but they still plan to go in mid-May, a couple of weeks later than originally intended.
“Hopefully, if everything calms down, our flight will still be set for the 13th [of May],” Bhandari said. “They’ve already been booked. There are nine of us supposed to be going, and we’re all Aggies.”
Bhandari said most of the students going on the trip are pre-med, with a few education majors as well. Conditions in Nepal are critical, as food and bodies still trapped underneath rubble now have the opportunity to produce bacteria and disease.
“It’s going to take a while to rebuild,” Bhandari said.