COURIER LIFE, SEPT. 18-24, 2020 3
FORGOTTEN
anniversary of 9/11
ticipants were urged to wear
masks and maintain a safe
social distance.
“Despite the challenges
that the current times imposed
on us,” Gounardes said,
he was proud to bring the
community together to commemorate
that fateful day.
At both ceremonies, local
clergy members of various
faiths shared prayers for
the fallen, while other speakers
recounted their own experiences
on 9/11 and spoke
of how that day has since
changed their lives.
“Getting through Sept.
11, I became more evolved,
I emerged as a human being
better equipped to help others
because of that pain, better
equipped to love others
and accept the love of others,”
said former NYPD transit
chief Joe Fox, who served
as the Marine Park ceremony’s
keynote speaker. “And
I know that us, as a country,
and us, as a people, did the
same. Through that pain, we
became better.”
Earlier in the week, offi
cials came together at the
Fort Hamilton Army Base
in Bay Ridge, where servicemembers
commemorated the
anniversary of 9/11 with a
formal ceremony rooted in
military tradition.
Captain Jason Otaño, who
lived in Sheepshead Bay in
September, 2001, served as
the honorary speaker at the
small Sept. 10 ceremony and
recounted his experience that
fateful day 19 years ago.
That same evening, New
York City fi rst responders
gathered for an emotional
prayer vigil at Coney Island’s
Wall of Remembrance.
Photos by Paul Frangipane
Keeping with social distancing
guidelines amid the
COVID-19 pandemic, organizers
of the annual candlelight
ceremony at the 9/11 memorial
instead held a small observance
for mourners to stop
by the wall to light a candle,
say a prayer, and pay their respects
to those lost.
The Wall of Remembrance,
located on the western
facade of MCU Park,
is comprised of three panels,
each with its own set
of bronze reliefs and laserengraved
portraits of firefighters,
law enforcement
officers, and various other
uniformed volunteers who
died on 9/11 while responding
to the terrorist attack on
the World Trade Center. In
all, the wall memorializes
417 of the city’s fallen first
responders.