At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, when the candlelight vigil at the Gateway Plaza in front of the Joe Crowley Student Union was scheduled to begin, it didn't - but for good reason.

"We literally only have 16 candles left," one of the student organizers, a young man with dark hair wearing a blue Wolf Pack shirt, called to the line that had formed.

It was a line full of students patiently waiting for candles, a line that stretched from the already packed plaza and snaked its way along the sidewalk a good couple of hundred yards distant, all the way past the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center to the William Raggio Building.

A few moments later it was determined that the final 16 candles would be distributed "to big groups. Get a candle and stand together in big groups," the young man called.

When the final candles were distributed, the University's candlelight vigil for the 58 who were killed and the hundreds more who were wounded during Sunday night's shooting in Las Vegas, began.

The vigil was attended by more than 1,000 people. Under a rising moon to the east and dark wisps of clouds that fingered the darkening sky to the west, students held each other and listened as speakers offered words of comfort and hope.

As the event wore on, the circle of those gathered began to tighten even more; what had been a chilly early evening began to feel warm as hands joined and the speakers' words began the process of reminding those in attendance that even in absence, the presence of those lost would never be forgotten.

Washoe County School Board President Angela Taylor, a University alumna, summed up the events of the past few days well.

"If you're like me," she told the crowd, "I felt a lot of emotions yesterday. I couldn't help but think, 'Hate and evil are winning.'"

Related Link Resources in wake of Las Vegas tragedy

Taylor paused. She looked out at the faces of the University's students, and used what she saw to conjure up what many had been experiencing since Sunday - the news of the tragedy, certainly, but also what had followed in its wake. The many reports of strangers who had rescued other strangers. First responders who had run into the situation without a moment's hesitation. The stories of long lines of Nevadans who waited hours to donate blood to people they did not even know.

"But instead of seeing hate," Taylor said of the reports and what she was witnessing in front of her on campus Tuesday night, "I began to see the love. Hate and evil did not win on Sunday night ... love wins."

"Love wins when you take this as a defining moment," she added. "Love wins when you step up and answer the call as so many did on Sunday night."

ASUN President Noah Teixeira said the past 24 hours had been "absolutely devastating for all the students on our campus ... It could have been any of us at that music festival." Like Taylor, Teixeira said the best rebuttal to such senseless violence was simple. "Show love," he told the crowd.

The University's Title IX Coordinator Denise Cordova stressed that even in the face of violence, "our inner strength cannot and will not be silenced. This is the strength that gathers us in solidarity together with our brothers and sisters of Las Vegas."

Vice President of Student Services Shannon Ellis said that the University's connection to southern Nevada has always been exceptionally strong. She said that the more than 4,000 southern Nevadans who attend the University were hurting, as was the entire campus. She said "coming together like this vigil is a way to mourn together and come together as a Nevada community." A statement from President Marc Johnson that Ellis read to the crowd encouraged the campus to continue to come together in the wake of the shootings.

Faculty Senate Chair-Elect Terina Caserto said the gathering on Tuesday was "exactly what I'd hoped to see - strength. And I see hope amid your faces." She added, "It is our hope that the strength here tonight travels across the far reaches of our state."

During the Musical Therapy Club's rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," all of the candles that were distributed were slowly raised into the night air. The darkness began to lift with the light of the candles. In the light of the candles, you could see the faces of the students, and their concern for one another. Arms were draped around shoulders. Hands were locked together. Their soft voices, in a kind of surpassing loveliness which seemed to further seek the communion of connection that the moment presented, began to join with the Musical Therapy group's singers.

ASUN Speaker of the Senate Hannah Jackson summed up the moment perfectly: "Love each other. And hug each other tight."

It was a candlelight vigil that ran out of candles before it even started.

Or, as Taylor said, "So many of you showed up that we ran out of candles. That's what I'm talking about. We held a candlelight vigil and we ran out of candles. Love wins. Light your candles, look at the person standing next to you, and tell them, 'Love wins.'"