From CSU Canvas Stadium to classrooms: Colorado faces a culture reckoning

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice

At CSU’s vigil for Charlie Kirk, speakers moved from grief to courage, tying the moment to a generational fight for truth.

In Fort Collins, Canvas Stadium was bathed in light as thousands raised their phones in unison, a modern candlelit vigil for Charlie Kirk. The glow stretched across the stands, a silent tribute led by the students he had inspired.

Thousands filled CSU’s Canvas Stadium for the Charlie Kirk vigil.

“Conservatives and Christians on college campuses were told to be quiet, but Charlie gave us our voice to stand up for what we believe in, to love America and to love Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, our king,” said Gabe Saint, president of Turning Point USA’s Wyoming chapter.

He described hundreds of students reaching out after Kirk’s death, asking what to do next. “I think Erika Kirk said it best when she addressed the nation. We already know what to do and that’s to keep fighting for freedom on every college campus across the country.”

Attendees reflected in silence and applause during the vigil.

For CSU alumna Isabel Brown and former CU Regent Heidi Ganahl, the vigil was as much about Colorado’s front lines as it was about honoring Kirk. Both said his legacy exposes a deeper battle — between truth and propaganda, faith and fear, consequence and silence.

Will Witt, a Colorado native, bestselling author and now working at a college in Florida, shared after the vigil that the moment calls for more than memory. “Charlie deserves the honor of being memorialized… but it is now also a time for courage — for people to stand up and speak more than ever before.”

“No one can fill Charlie’s shoes… look in the mirror and ask, how can I be more like Charlie?” Witt told the crowd.

“I think I’ve cried so much that I don’t have any tears left,” Ganahl reflected afterwards. Ganahl, who served as a University of Colorado Regent and was the GOP’s 2022 nominee for governor, added that she first learned how to face loss when her first husband died. 

“Grief is a crazy ride… you’ve got to go through it instead of trying to push back on it,” she said, recalling what counseling had taught her. Even now, she pressed the point that the moment cannot be wasted. “If everybody puts their shields down, goes back to work and ignores what just happened, we’ll have to learn the lesson again.”

Brown, a CSU graduate, former Turning Point USA activist and now host of The Isabel Brown Show with the Daily Wire, recalled her classroom experience as a biomedical sciences student. “I even had to lose points on an exam in a biology course as a student on this campus by choosing the wrong answer choice that God created the universe,” she said.

“Very quickly I discovered that college across the country and even here in Fort Collins had abandoned the noble pursuit of truth.”

She added that less than a year after attending her first Turning Point event in 2017, Kirk spoke at CSU in 2018 on free expression, with protests outside the venue.

“From the first moment of that first conference, I knew I would never be alone in my values again,” Brown said of joining TPUSA.

Witt, who first entered politics as a student at CU Boulder before building a national platform with PragerU, told the crowd he never expected to be back in Fort Collins under such circumstances. 

He also challenged the crowd—of roughly 7,400—to think differently about vengeance in the wake of Kirk’s death. “Some people might disagree with this, but I think revenge when done in the name of good is a noble pursuit,” he said. “And how do we best take our vengeance for these people who hate us, who want to see us dead? We do it through the way we live. Living like Charlie is the best revenge that we can take.”

Witt had flown from Florida back to his home state of Colorado to speak at the vigil, choosing to take the stage while the grief was still raw. Asked what gave him the strength to honor Kirk so soon after his death, Witt said it came from who Charlie was. “Charlie always was genuine. That is such a rare thing in politics and media and it is inspiring to see how steadfast and brave he always was in his beliefs.”

Andrew Wommack, founder of Charis Bible College in Woodland Park and a longtime evangelical broadcaster, framed Kirk’s death as a strategic misstep by his opponents. “This is the worst thing the other side could have done,” he told the crowd. “They didn’t kill the message, and I believe millions of people are rising up to continue this voice. Praise God.”

When the event was over, Ganahl reflected on how the aftermath of Kirk’s death laid bare a darkness that cannot be ignored. “It was eye-opening to see how much evil there is… the depths they would go to… cheering it on and wanting more.” From late-night shows to faculty on campuses, she noted, the reactions exposed not just disagreement but a celebration of violence.

Ganahl expanded on that point and how she’d noticed the phrase “consequence culture” gaining traction on social media, capturing the moment. “I love the term ‘consequence culture,’” she said. “No, we’re not in cancel culture—we’re in consequence culture.” 

Brown remarks on stage paralleled that message. “Charlie was the general in perhaps the most important war in our nation’s history: the culture war, the battle of ideas, the stand between liberty and death,” she said.

Brown argued that fear will come — and the choice that follows defines a generation. “Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is choosing to get up even when you’re shaking in fear, it’s choosing to speak even when others will do anything, including take your life, to silence you.”

“Charlie wasn’t just about ideas — he was about action, about giving young people the tools to fight for their future,” Ganahl said.

As she left the vigil, Ganahl said the impact of Kirk’s life—and death—will not fade into business as usual. “You can feel it. It’s a spiritual change.” 

See more photos and quotes from the CSU vigil in this Twitter/X recap thread.

The CSU vigil was also streamed live and is available for replay on TPUSA’s Rumble channel here.