Video: A Cabaret for Reema Samaha

Westfield High School held a Remembrance Cabaret in honor of Reema Samaha, who died at Virginia Tech in 2007.

The event was created out of tragedy, but on Saturday night the auditorium at Westfield High School rang with laughter and cheers during the Remembrance Cabaret for Reema Samaha.  Reema Samaha, of Centreville, died at Virginia Tech during the shootings on campus five years ago. A Westfield graduate, Reema loved the performing arts, particularly theatre and dance. The cabaret is held every year at Westfield in her memory. One of the performances included the Contemporary Dance Ensemble of Virginia Tech dancing to "Andaloosia," which Reema choreographed as a student at VT. Reema's parents, Joe and Mona Samaha, distribute scholarships every year to graduating students from Westfield and Herndon High schools. A recipient of the Reema J. Samaha…

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Five Years After Tech: Honoring Erin and Reema

Mount Olive Baptist Church hosted the fourth annual Erin Peterson Gospel Celebration of Life on Sunday.

The annual service held at Mount Olive Baptist Church on Sunday afternoon was born out of tragedy — but the message was one of hope and joy. Hundreds gathered at the church to sing, dance and take part in the Erin Peterson Gospel Celebration of Life to honor Peterson, a Westfield High School graduate from Centreville. On April 16, 2007, Peterson and another classmate from Westfield, Reema Samaha, were killed along with 30 others on the Virginia Tech campus by Seung Hui-Cho of Centreville. Those at the celebration recalled Erin's faith and service to others, while delivering a message of hope amidst pain. "I describe Erin as a cool Christian," her mother Celeste Peterson said in an interview Monday. "Lots of people think of Christianity as …

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Local Family Wins Lawsuit Against Virginia Tech

The family of Westfield High graduate Erin Peterson have won a lawsuit against the university.

The family of Erin Nicole Peterson, a Westfield High School graduate, have won a $4 million lawsuit against Virginia Tech for the school's allegedly negligent response to the 2007 shootings on campus. Peterson died in the shootings that day, but her family argued in court that she might be alive if the school had warned students of the rampage earlier. The jury deliberated for three and a half hours, the Associated Press reported Wednesday, before coming to a decision to award each family $4 million. The lawsuit was filed jointly with the family of another victim, Julia Pryde. The Associated Press reported that the university will appeal the verdict since state law caps damages at $100,000. The award comes just weeks before the five-year …

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Made You Look!

Remembering Reema With Song, Dance and Laughter

The Remembrance Cabaret for Reema was this past Saturday at Westfield High School.

Members of the Northern Virginia community gathered on Saturday night at Westfield High School to celebrate the life of Centreville's Reema J. Samaha, one of the 32 victims of the Virginia Tech shooting on April 16, 2007. As a tribute to Samaha, musicians, dancers and actors across Northern Virginia, alumni of Westfield High School, Herndon High School and Virginia Tech came together in a cabaret, which all proceeds going to The Reema J Samaha Memorial Scholarship, granted each year to graduates of Westfield and Herndon high schools who “best exemplify the attributes of Reema J. Samaha,” and The Angel Fund. Samaha was a performer from the time she was young. “Since age two she wanted to be in a tutu and ballet shoes all the time,” said …

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