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9-11 Remembrance Ceremony at Forest Lawn to Focus on Children
Posted on September 27th, 2011Poignant event to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the event that changed our nation forever.
Buffalo, NY (September 8, 2011) – Western New Yorkers are invited to attend a unique ceremony at Forest Lawn this Sunday, September 11, 2011. The 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony is designed to honor the 2,819* innocent people who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania, and also to help explain the events of that day to children who were too young to remember or weren’t born yet.
“September 11, 2001 is a day none of us will forget, as it changed the lives of all Americans forever,” says Joseph P. Dispenza, president of Forest Lawn. “It is a day none of us should forget and, to that end, I strongly encourage all parents to bring their children to this event, for they are the ones who will inherit the world from us and can, ultimately, create a world of peace.”
The ceremony will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. with brief comments by Mr. Dispenza and Monica Farrar, MS-CRC; CASAC-T, a private practitioner and life coach with MapleView Center, LLC, who specializes in grief counseling. Tom LeBeau, chaplain, Civil Air Patrol/U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, will deliver the Invocation and John Leising, captain, Engine 38, Buffalo Fire Department, the Call to Remembrance. Handouts outlining how parents can talk to their children about 9/11 ten years later will also be available.
A minute of silence will be observed at 8:45 a.m., the last minute before the lives of all Americans were irrevocably changed ten years ago. At 8:46 a.m. – the moment Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center – firefighters from Engine 38 will begin tolling Forest Lawn’s historic bell (from the former St. Joseph’s Cathedral) once for each victim.
As the bell is tolled, adults and children are invited to help place 2,819 carnations – one for each life lost on 9/11 - on the specially-designated area in front of the administration building, where they will remain throughout the day. The ceremony will end at approximately 10:15 a.m. as the bell is tolled for the last victim.
This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. It will take place just inside Forest Lawn’s Delaware Avenue gates, in front of the administration building. It will also be carried live via webcam on the Forest Lawn website: www.forest-lawn.com.
*Source: New York Magazine (official figure as of 9/5/02)(/em)
