Northwest College students and staff spent Tuesday remembering Berry Bryant at a makeshift monument to the former student, who was raped and murdered by a fellow student 25 years ago.

The message “Berry, We miss you” was created in 1996 by painting rocks white and spelling out the words on Polecat Bench, on the east side of Wyo. Highway 295 near the Powell Airport. Every few years, students refurbish the message, hoping the lessons learned from Bryant’s murder are never forgotten, said student Bailey Liebert.

“You might think these things, like, only happen at like bigger campuses, and they don’t really affect us here at home,” Liebert said. “But it’s important to know that it affects smaller campuses too, and to be safe.”

Psychology major Logan Gould of Cody hopes the refurbished message renews efforts to combat sexual assault.

“We’re trying to raise awareness about sexual assault and to look out for your fellow man or woman,” Gould said, his hands and clothing covered in splotches of white paint.

Gould learned the world was full of “darkness” at a young age, he said. In 2012, an 11-year-old Cody elementary school student was abducted and assaulted. The incident changed the way Gould saw the world.

“She was a girl that we all knew,” he said. “That was when a lot of us had to realize, hey, the real world is a little bit darker than we thought and we need to pay attention.”

Nursing student and Powell resident Tegan Lovelady said giving the monument some TLC is also an important way to show support to Bryant’s friends and family.

“I think it’s just really important that we support her family and show support from the campus aspect,” Lovelady said. “Everybody moves here for college and they realize what a loving community it is. And living here my whole life, I think it’s really important in our community that we do things that support our fellow citizens.”

It was on Oct. 5, 1996 that then-Northwest College student Levi Collen of Ten Sleep took Bryant from a school dance to Polecat Bench, where he brutally raped her. Then he took her life, killing her with a knife. Bryant was 18 years old.

Lee Blackmore, director of residence and campus life at the college, led the students in Tuesday’s volunteer effort. He had graduated from Northwest College the year before Bryant was murdered. Memories of the loss hit Blackmore even after he was gone and he hopes the lessons learned from Bryant’s murder are never forgotten.

On the 25th anniversary of her murder last month, family, friends and officials from the college created a memorial surrounded by daffodils on campus and announced the first recipient of a scholarship from the Berry Bryant Memorial Endowment.

Students participating in Tuesday’s efforts were Student Senate President Aubrianne Crosby, Treasurer Sabree Adams, Secretary Baylee Peterson, and Representatives Rylee Penrod, Bailey Liebert, Graicen Whitlock, Michael Neufer, Lovelady and Gould.