Mid-Ohio Valley to honor victims of Sept. 11 attacks
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PARKERSBURG -- Observances of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are planned Monday, Patriots Day, in the area.
The annual Sept. 11 memorial will be held at 7:30 a.m. by the flagpole in the horseshoe in front of Parkersburg High School.
The event also remembers Mary Lou Hague, a 1992 graduate of Parkersburg High who was an analyst at the investment firm of Keefe, Bruyette and Woods in New York City where her office was on the 89th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. She was killed when two airliners hijacked by terrorists were flown into the Trade Center buildings, causing a collapse of both structures.
At noon, West Virginia University at Parkersburg will hold its annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony in the College Theater.
The college will commemorate the events of 9/11 and honor those who have served or are serving in the armed forces and first responders.
"This holiday is a remembrance of what happened, how things have changed and how these changes have impacted Americans in general," said Darren Shearlock, Veterans Advocate at the college's Veterans' Resource Center. "The deaths are what you usually hear people talk about, but the lives impacted far exceed the individuals that died that day."
Mark Beecher, a volunteer at the Red Cross and U.S. Navy veteran, will be a guest speaker. Beecher will offer a look at the tragic event from the perspective of a Red Cross volunteer.
"The Red Cross saw how people's lives were affected instantly from the attacks, but now they can also see how people's lives have been impacted over the long term," Shearlock said. "There was an emergency that happened on Sept. 11, 2001, but it continued to cascade into a series of individual emergencies for a lot of people for the last 22 years."
For more information about the Remembrance Ceremony or the Veterans' Resource Center, contact Shearlock at darren.shearlock@wvup.edu.
At Marietta College, student veterans and student organizations will set up small flags in the Kremer Amphitheatre to represent the people who died on Sept. 11. Flags will represent every nation from where someone perished on this day and will remain all day.
Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia ordered flags at half-staff from dawn to dusk on Monday. The governor asked residents for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. Monday to honor the victims of Sept. 11 and also signed proclamations declaring Monday as Patriots Day and Heroes Day, which honors the bravery and sacrifice of first responders in West Virginia.
"Sept. 11, 2001, is an event we will never ever forget," Justice said.
Terrorists hijacked four airliners on Sept. 11, 2001. Two were flown into the World Trade Centers, one into the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in a field in Somerset County in Southwest Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake the Boeing 757, thwarting the four al-Qaeda terrorists who planned to fly the plane into a federal building in Washington.