About 70 people gathered at the Fenway Center Saturday to take part in the Celebration of the Life of Becca Payne, an event held to honor junior athletic training major Rebecca Payne, who was found shot to death in her Mission Hill apartment in May.

Despite the nature of Payne’s death, the event served as a time to commemorate Payne’s achievements and vivacious attitude, said Payne’s friends, who helped organize the event with members of the Spiritual Life Office, the Office of Student Affairs, the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Department of Athletic Training.

People mingled and shared memories about their time with Payne before others read poems and speeches in her honor.

Senior journalism major Samantha Lavine said she used the Abraham Lincoln quotation, “It’s not the years in your life that count; it’s the life in your years,” in a tribute to Payne because she “couldn’t find a more perfect quote to describe Becca.”

Payne lived her life to the fullest, Lavine said.

“We’ve all really learned to follow in her footsteps, not just because of her death but because of what she has done.