Five candles and pens were laid next to two large cards Tuesday night in remembrance of the five students who lost their lives in the Northern Illinois University shooting last month.

The memorial service in the Gallery Room in the Memorial Union was conceived and put together last week by Jacqueline Megow, freshman in apparel merchandising, design and production, and Morgan Dowdall, sophomore in pre-journalism and mass communication.

The two memorial cards will be set in the East Student Office Space for the rest of this week for students who were unable to attend the event. After that, the card will be mailed to Northern Illinois. The students who trickled into the room either prayed silently, read from the Bible, stared listlessly or reflected with peers.

Megow and Dowdall said they put on the memorial because they wanted to honor those who lost their lives in the shooting.

“I’m not with any organization – I just felt that somebody should do something that shows our support of NIU,” Megow said.

To begin the memorial, both Megow and Dowdall spoke about the unknown motives of Steven Kazmierczak, the shooter who entered Cole Hall on Feb. 14 and fired shots into a class, injuring 15 and killing six, including himself.

“He didn’t know any of them, and they didn’t know him,” Megow said. “What if it happened here? What if it were you in that lecture hall? Sadly, it takes events like this to bring people together.”

Megow, who was raised outside of Chicago, said she had friends who attend Northern Illinois. She said she plans on transferring there next year because her parents wanted her closer to home.

“Even after this happened, it hasn’t changed my opinion of the school,” she said.

Dowdall said that, when he heard about the shooting, it struck him closely. He said he had friends on the NIU campus and wanted to do something for the victims, their families and the school.

“NIU hit close to home for me, personally,” Dowdall said. “I really wanted to remember the lives lost.”

Some students who attended the memorial said they had friends on the campus or just wanted to pay their respects to those who died.

“I’m from Illinois, and I have really good friends who were in the room. I’m here for support,” said Paige Steele-Rollins, freshman in pre-business.

Some students struggled with the situation, like Jessica Beisner, sophomore in liberal arts and sciences-open option.

“I feel that with the violence that happens across campuses – that it is important to honor the families,” she said. “If we just reach out to each other, then it would stop. If we reach out to someone who needs it, it will stop.”