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Volunteers Help Serve + Remember In Westchester; 9/11 Ceremonies Are Planned

Numerous ceremonies are scheduled for this weekend marking the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And while Westchester County will hold such a ceremony, it also offers residents the opportunity to serve and remember.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino says “9/11 Day: Serve + Remember” offers volunteer opportunities that run through September 11.

“9/11 Day is more than just a day,” Astorino says. “It’s really a reflection of who we are and what we choose to stand for as a community.”

Service projects began Friday, at the County Center in White Plains, and will run throughout the weekend at locations across Westchester. Alisa Kesten is Executive Director of Volunteer New York!

“The theme of this year’s 9/11 is service, empathy and unity,” Kesten says. “And I hope everyone listening will join us as we remember that unity and compassion that was shared by so many first responders, blood donors and volunteers who came together after 9/11 and help us shine the light on their service and the empathy that carries us forward today.”

Again, Astorino.

“And thankfully here in Westchester our commitment to service is very, very strong, so strong, in fact, that last year we had 1,200 volunteers join us in just three days and together they put out 1,700 hours of service back into our community,” Astorino says.

Kesten says projects and services help support 40 local nonprofits and causes.

“For those who lost loved ones, colleagues, family members, friends, I’m not suggesting that a few hours of service is going to make a difference, and it’s certainly not going to heal the pain,” says Kesten. “But what it is going to do, I think, is that when we respectfully honor those people in this way, it makes a statement about who we are as a community and nation and how we honor fallen heroes and people who have lost their lives.”

Westchester lost 123 residents on 9/11. Astorino says signing up for service projects can include helping to feed the hungry, providing clothing for children in need, planting flowers with at-risk youth, and sending letters to troops overseas.

“And we all think back on where we were when we heard the news that day. And some of us have to live with that horror every day since then when we lost husbands or wives or family members or neighbors and friends," Astorino says. "And it said that time is the one that heals all the wounds but I’m not sure that this one will ever fade because it’s so close to where we area. And I don’t think it should. We shouldn’t forget because the memory of the horror on that day is a call to action, and it does say very strongly that good must always trump evil.”

Westchester’s formal 9/11 ceremony takes place Sunday at The Rising memorial at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla at 7 p.m. In Rockland, County Executive Ed Day will lead the observance of a memorial ceremony at Haverstraw Bay County Park. The ceremony begins at 8:30 Sunday morning and relatives will read the names of Rockland’s 81 victims of both the 1993 and 2001 attacks. Orange County holds a September 11 Patriot Day ceremony at the county arboretum at Thomas Bull Memorial Park. A procession begins at 5:55 in the evening with the release of white doves followed by a 6 o’clock ceremony that honors the 44 Orange County residents who lost their lives on 9/11.

Dutchess County Family Court Judge Peter Forman hosted his annual memorial service Friday morning. And as part of the Wings of Freedom Tour, a memorial ceremony will be held at 11 Sunday morning at the Dutchess County Airport. Several municipalities and organizations across the Hudson Valley will be holding their own remembrance events.

And New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says that flags on state government buildings will be flown at half-staff September 11 in remembrance of the nearly 3,000 men, women and children who lost their lives in the 2001 terrorist attacks.  

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