Tucked up on the second deck railing in front of section 216, the special interest THON organization AYUDA is remembering the life of Timothy Piazza with a “For Tim” banner. Piazza tragically passed away earlier this month in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house.

In the year and a half that Piazza spent at Penn State, he dedicated his life to the community. At his candlelight vigil last week, Paige Hammond, who interviewed Piazza when he joined an OPP committee, described him as always smiling and he always made a point to brighten people’s days.

Written on the banner are the signatures of everyone in AYUDA, everyone in Piazza’s committee, and everyone in his brother’s committee. “We just wanted to do something to honor Tim because THON was literally his life and it’s what he loved most of all and what he gave himself to,” AYUDA executive board member Kyle Bennison said.

The banner is their gesture to remember how much Piazza wanted to be at THON and how much he loved everything they do. “We want to show everybody that we miss him and that he means the world to us, but that we’re never going to forget what he did for us,” AYUDA executive board member Jacob Reagan said. “We’re never going to forget the kind of attitude that he had in terms of helping other people.”

“Tim was the life of our organization,” Reagan said. “The kind of passion that he brought to everything, even a boring executive board meeting, was infectious.”

Since Tim’s passing, THON donations in his name have spiked dramatically. “I think that it’s so fitting because he was always the first to give back and the last to take,” Reagan said. “The fact that he’s able to help so many people even after he’s gone and hopefully into the future is really incredible. ”

You will surely be missed, Tim.