More than 250 gather for solemn ceremony of names, bells, flowers and remembrance on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks
HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. — Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks changed the nation and took the lives of thousands, more than 250 people gathered Friday morning at Haverstraw Bay County Park to remember the men and women whose loss struck especially close to home in Rockland County.
Family members, friends, first responders, clergy, public officials and community members assembled at the Rockland County September 11 Memorial, where 85 names were read in remembrance of people who lived in Rockland County or had previously called the county home when they died on September 11, 2001.
The ceremony marked a milestone few who lived through that morning could have imagined: a quarter-century since four commercial airliners were hijacked in a coordinated terrorist attack against the United States.
American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., followed by United Airlines Flight 175 striking the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., while United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. after passengers and crew members fought back against the hijackers. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. and the North Tower at 10:28 a.m.
Those moments were marked again in Haverstraw Friday by the solemn tolling of a bell, allowing those gathered to reflect on the sequence of events that unfolded 25 years earlier.
The attacks killed 2,977 victims in New York City, at the Pentagon and aboard the four aircraft, while thousands more were injured. The effects of the attacks would continue for decades through illnesses suffered by first responders, recovery workers, survivors and others exposed to hazardous conditions following the collapse of the World Trade Center.
For Rockland County, the enormous national tragedy was also deeply personal.
As each of the 85 names was spoken Friday, the ceremony brought the focus back from the scale of the attacks to individual lives — parents, spouses, children, friends, neighbors and coworkers whose absence has remained part of Rockland’s collective memory for a quarter-century.
Among those taking part in the ceremony were Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco, Juan Pablo Mobili, Gary Graifmann and Kelly Bosco Manzi, who read passages during the observance. Rockland County Executive Ed Day also offered remarks as those assembled listened in silence.
Actor and singer Rita Harvey performed “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” providing a moment of deeply emotional reflection – as families and community members quietly remembered those they lost.
When the formal ceremony concluded, the remembrance became more personal.
Attendees approached the memorial and placed red roses near the engraved names of loved ones, friends and neighbors. Day placed a rose at each memorial site, while other families embraced and lingered near the names.
Alison Crowther placed flowers and a red bandana at the memorial, one of many personal gestures left behind after the ceremony. By its conclusion, flowers surrounded portions of the memorial as families and friends continued to pay their respects.
Rockland County had announced the anniversary observance earlier in the week, inviting family members, clergy, first responders and residents to attend the annual ceremony at Haverstraw Bay County Park. The county also launched a two-part “Rockland Remembers” video series highlighting acts of courage and compassion by Rockland residents on September 11 and in the days that followed.
The memorial at Haverstraw Bay Park was created as a permanent place to remember those connected to Rockland who were lost to terrorism and to give families and residents a place for reflection. Set near the Hudson River, it has become the center of the county’s annual September 11 observance.
On Friday, however, the memorial represented more than history carved into stone.
Twenty-five years have brought a generation of Rockland residents who have no personal memory of September 11, 2001. Children born after the attacks are now adults, while many who lost parents, spouses, siblings and friends have carried those memories for more than half their lives.
That passage of time has given ceremonies such as Rockland’s an additional purpose: remembering not only what happened, but the people behind the names.
As the crowd slowly departed Haverstraw Bay Park Friday morning, the roses remained.
So did the names.
And 25 years later, so did Rockland County’s promise to remember.
Advertisements
