Kansas University students watch a slideshow presentation in memory of Holocaust survivor and Israeli mechanics and engineering professor Liviu Librescu, pictured on screen, who was slain during the shootings at Virginia Tech trying to save his students. The Tuesday evening event Courage

A poster featuring the Virginia Tech logo is surrounded by pledges of good deeds from Kansas University students and others in remembrance of the lives lost during the shootings at Virginia Tech.

With the Virginia Tech shooting incident last month in mind, Marni Green’s resolution from now on is to help those who need it, even if they don’t ask for it.

“Probably to reach out to those who feel lonely,” said Green, a Kansas University sophomore. “Or if there’s someone on the street who looks like they’re having a bad day, to say hi to them.”

Green’s resolution matched that of several KU students who offered to do a good deed in their community as a memorial to those killed in the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings.

Nearly 20 students, many from the Chabad Jewish Student Center, gathered Tuesday night at the Kansas Union on the KU campus to remember the shooting rampage that claimed the lives of 32 people and the shooter as it starts to slip from headlines with the passage of time.

“It can’t just be brushed under the rug,” said Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, director of the Chabad Center in Lawrence.

Students wrote their deeds on cards that were attached to a mural of sorts. Many of the deeds pledged to offer a smile and kindness to strangers.

Lou Frydman, professor emeritus in the KU School of Social Welfare, spoke to the group about how he survived the Holocaust as a teenager, much like slain Virginia Tech engineering professor Liviu Librescu had.

Tiechtel said he wanted Frydman to share his experiences to show students a positive example of how people can overcome tragedy.

“He gives a universal message to everybody, and that is to stand up and do what’s right,” Tiechtel said.

Frydman was 12 when he first entered a Nazi concentration camp in Poland.

He entered the camp during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943 and spent time at various camps over the next two years.

Of his several close encounters with death while at the camps, one came when Frydman and many others were separated to go to one of two lines of people.

One line would lead them to labor camps and the other would lead them to gas chambers.

Frydman lied to commanders about being 17 years old and able to work, even though he was actually 14 and, by his own account, appeared to be 12.

“If I’m going to die,” he quipped, “I’m not going to wait in line.”

The gathering had an effect on at least one student who was there.

Traci Brill, a KU freshman studying social work, said she planned to adhere to a couple of good deeds.

“To have tolerance for others,” she said. “You can’t take life for granted.”