Springfield, Massachusetts hosted a solemn ceremony Wednesday remembering those lost on September 11th, 2001.
“May the images of helpers, firefighters, police officers, EMTs, clergy, office workers,” ordinary citizens, be the icons that inspire us to be helpers too,” said Father Gary Dailey, chaplain of the Springfield Fire Department and one of several speakers during a remembrance ceremony at Riverfront Park. “May texts and voicemails of ‘I love you’ and ‘You are everything to me’ assure us that love always has the last word and we should never wait to say it.”
The observance centered around a 9-and-a-half-foot steel beam from the World Trade Center. The monument stands before a curved, bronze wall, which features the names of the 498 first responders who died in the attacks 23 years ago.
Springfield will always remember and never forget the sacrifices of those first responders: fire, police and many others - and the families that still suffer every day and some who have lost their lives after the fact, after the fact with health challenges,” said Mayor Domenic Sarno.
The annual ceremony is organized by The Spirit of Springfield, a non-profit that was a driving force in putting the memorial together, culminating in its dedication in 2019 along the Connecticut River.
In the years leading up to it, the group had petitioned the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for an artifact from the World Trade Center.
Now, special lighting focused on the beam casts dual-shadows on the wall behind – an homage to the twin towers and the sacrifices made at Ground Zero and beyond.
“They taught us through their actions that day what it means to be human, and show human love,” said Police Superintendent Lawrence Akers. “They showed us indisputable value of duty, loyalty, self-sacrifice and, once again, human love. The only way we'll triumph over terrorism, and conquer the senseless tragedy of that horrible day, is by celebrating the kindness of the human spirit. Today, as we remember those lost, I ask you to join me in confidence that good will not only endure, but we will succeed.”
Local first responders recounted where they were the day of the attacks. Akers recounted dropping a vehicle off at the shop when he saw the news. Springfield Fire Department Commissioner BJ Calvi, then a part-time EMS truck worker for Holyoke Hospital, said he had just responded to a call in Chicopee.
Stationed on the West Coast as an F-15C Pilot at the time, now-104th Fighter Wing Commander and Colonel David Halasi-Kun spoke of how thousands of miles away, base personnel streamed in to take action.
The volunteerism, he says, was just as immediate and extensive.
“The lines outside of the Red Cross where people were volunteering to help - they didn't know how to help, but they needed to do something, and they said, ‘I am here,’ and they were in that line,” he said from the podium. “The line outside the recruiter stations - people raising their hands, saying ‘Send me, send me to vanquish the evil.’ The lines at the funerals of fallen service members and fallen civilians – [people] saying their final goodbyes – I remember those things."
With a massive American flag draped and flowing over the park’s entrance way, the ceremony featured a wreath laying and tolling of the bell – wrapping up with a rifle salute and taps.
