A candlelight vigil was held Wednesday at a central Arizona courthouse for the woman who was slain by Islamic State militants.

Family members and friends, as well as strangers, gathered to wear pink ribbons on their shirts and listen to speakers talk about Kayla Mueller, the 26-year-old aid worker whose death was confirmed by U.S. officials recently after she was captured in Syria back in August 2013, according to an Associated Press report.

People wrote messages in her scrapbook and left cards calling Mueller an angel and leaving other comments that thanked her for her work abroad in the name of humanity.

Her brother, Eric Mueller was on hand for the vigil, encouraging those gathered to emulate her example by helping the suffering. His father, Carl Mueller, hugged him after the speech.

Eric Mueller said that his sister was in the hands of God now, and “you do not have to suffer anymore.”

Supporters also used the vigil to collect canned goods and money for the less fortunate, which they said is what she would have wanted.

Kayla Mueller’s family sat in the front row and often wiped tears during the ceremony.

Kathleen Day, a campus minister at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff — where Kayla Mueller attended — said that she raised awareness for HIV and AIDS and also protested genocide in Darfur during her time at the university. She also recalled a time when Mueller taught anger-management skills to jailed women.

Day said that Mueller was in the midst of teaching about experiencing God while in prison when she was imprisoned herself in Syria for 18 months by Islamic militants. Day asked the crowd to pray for those held hostage by the Islamic State.