Docs for Morgan Annual Fundraiser Benefit

[Conor O'Neill, class of 2018]: I remember when I interviewed for medical school back in February of my senior year in college, I had a conversation with a student who is now in residency. He told me about this game that was played between the medical students and the attendings and he said it was for a cause that was really important to the school and that it really brought out huge crowds and it was this great opportunity for there to be sort of a camaraderie between the students and the residents and the attendings. My first year when I got the email I think I was maybe 15 seconds to respond because I knew that I wanted to play in the game.

[Cheerleaders wearing "Help save the next girl" T-shirts]

[Tracey Criss, associate dean for clinical science years 3 and 4]: Each game has has been intense and the students do such a great job of getting their student body here and our coaches, our volunteers and have been with us the whole way so the intensity is such that we talk about it ahead of time before we get here. We talk about it at the school, at the hospital and then we get out here and actually play. And what's fun about that is everybody comes with the mining in the spirit that we're going to do this for Morgan.

[Gil Harrington, Morgan's mom]: It's some fantastic energy. What I really I think enjoyed most about it is this really is a thank you back to this community that has supported us and held us up for so long and I I really appreciate this opportunity to express our gratitude because we could not have survived the devastation of our daughter's murder without the fantastic people at the medical school at Virginia Tech and here in Roanoke. They've been amazing.

[Tracey Criss]: I've been friends with the Harrington family for 23 years now our family and their family and I can say that I love them and it's helpful for me to know that on this night they're able to find some comfort and that they find some support from the community.

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] 

[Conor]: It is a competitive but you know in a very fun way, a competitive game. You know people come out and there's a lot of people here to watch and people want to win the game. You know we're all here for a great cause and you know you want to you want to champion that cause. So you want it you want to win.

[Dan Harrington, Morgan's dad]: This is all Tracey. Tracey pulled this together and you know and people like to play basketball and they're competitive and you know we get the community involved, it just works.

[Tracey Criss]: what it means to me is that Morgan's legacy can be supported by the community, the Jefferson College [of Health Sciences], and the School of Medicine, and Carilion all coming together to show that we can really have positive coming out of such an evil tragedy and I really like that we can support the Harrington family when we do this and then also help other students so that they can have that scholarship money to lessen the burden of medical education.

[Conor]: That's what this game is. It is a celebration of the life of Morgan Harrington, of the amazing deans at our school, of this really really strong community that I have been very very happy to be a part of the last four years.

[Dan Harrington]: For me it's the most important thing honestly is not how much money we raise, it really is the camaraderie. Because it's the only event that really brings all of these people together for one night and I think it's priceless.

[Music]