Town Remembers Victims Of 9/11

As the names of those killed were read aloud, a veteran placed a single rose in a container. Long Islander News photos/Peter Sloggatt

At ceremonies held Sunday in Heckscher Park, Huntington remembered the 43 town residents who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Family and friends of those being remembered were among the hundred or so who gathered on a drizzly, grey Sunday before the town’s 9/11 memorial, a narrow path lined with jagged steel columns that leads to a water feature.

Traditionally staged on the anniversary of the attacks, this year’s ceremony was moved to Sunday both to accommodate Rosh Hashanah as well as the wishes of family members who have found it difficult to attend the ceremonies on a weekday, said Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci, who emceed the ceremonies.

An Honor Guard of veterans group representatives presented the colors the 9/11 Memorial service at Heckscher Park Sunday.

Saying that on that day 17 years ago, “our lives were changed forever,” Lupinacci welcomed the families in attendance as “those who suffered the pain of the 9/11 terror attacks in a profound way.

“It is in memory of your loved ones that we gather here today,” he said, noting that “they were our neighbors and our friends,” and despite the years that pass, “they will never be forgotten.”

A lone piper plays Amazing Grace from among the rows of jagged steel beams that make up the September 11 Memorial in Heckscher Park.