NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The community is invited to a special Sept. 11th “Never Forget” observance on Friday evening, Sept. 6th at Newtown’s Pickering Field.
The observance, which begins at 6 p.m., will pause on the eve of the 23rd commemoration of the 9-11 terror attacks to honor the area’s first responders.
“The idea is just to stop and pause and pump the brakes a little from the world while we remember the first responders who ran into the towers 23 years ago and our own first responders who serve our community every day,” said Mayor John Burke, who is organizing the special night with the assistance of the Newtown Rotary Club.
The community’s first responders, including the Newtown Ambulance Squad, the Newtown Township and Newtown Borough Police Departments and Newtown Fire Rescue have been invited to attend.
“Believe it or not it’s been 23 years since that horrible day,” said Burke of the terrorist attack on America that killed 2977 people, including 265 on four hijacked planes, 2,753 at the World Trade Center in New York, 40 aboard Flight 93 in western Pennsylvania and 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Of the 2,977 victims killed, 415 were emergency workers in New York City who responded to the World Trade Center, including 343 firefighters from the New York City Fire Department; 37 police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department; 23 police
officers from the New York City Police Department; eight emergency medical technicians; and one New York Fire Patrolman. Also killed were three New York State court officers and a special agent from the FBI.
“Everyone says ‘Never Forget,’ but the challenge is to keep it out in front,” said Burke. “Over generations it just kind of fades away. We’ve been trying to keep this at the front so we don’t forget. It’s important for us to remember that day, the people we lost, and how grateful we are for all of our first responders.”
The special evening will include welcoming remarks, the reading of the names of the Bucks Countians who died that day, recognition of the first responders and bagpipe music.
Click Here: Manchester United Jersey Sale
Three guest speakers are also scheduled to address the gathering including retired New York City firefighter Kevin Doherty who responded to Ground Zero; former Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker, who was serving as Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania when 9-11 happened and responded to Shanksville following the crash of Flight 93; and the founder and executive director of Shamrock Reins Janet L. Brennan.
“It’s going to be real simple. It’s just about bringing the community together, saying thank you to our first responders and giving everyone a sense of peace and an opportunity to gather together,” said Burke. “It’s not a rally. It’s a remembrance. Come absorb the peacefulness and then go back into the community and keep that mindset alive.”
The event will also serve as a fundraiser for Shamrock Reins, a Bucks County-based organization that provides equine assisted activities and therapies for veterans, active duty and reserve service members, first responders, their families and the families of fallen heroes. The organization uses the power of horses to provide comfort and to help them heal through various beneficial services and activities.
Donations to Shamrock Reins can be made by sending checks to the Newtown Rotary Club, P.O. Box 1234, Penns Park 18943. The club is also accepting sponsorships for Friday evening’s commemoration and first responder recognition.
Burke said a luminary sale and display, which has been part of the event for the past few years, won’t be taking place this year, but he still encouraged members of the community who are moved to do so to line their sidewalks with lighted luminaries that evening.
Burke, who is originally from Long Island, said he was motivated to organize the remembrance by his own personnel connections to Sept. 11, 2001.
Twenty-three years ago, Burke was in New York City when the unthinkable happened.
While he was doing a preceptorship at Mount Sinai Hospital in uptown, two jets were hijacked and flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in the lower end of Manhattan.
“I came out of the elevator (at Mount Sinai) and it was complete chaos at 9:15 in the morning” just moments after the planes struck the towers, he said. “People were running around. And we didn’t know what was happening.”
Burke and his crew had to walk 40 blocks back to their hotel in Midtown. “The trains were stopped and you couldn’t get on anything.
“As we walked all you could see is the billowing black smoke coming out of the towers,” said Burke. “It was very scary. It was very surreal. And we were freaking out. There were jets flying over. We didn’t know what was next,” he said.
“There was no communication. Cell phones weren’t working. It was complete chaos,” said Burke who ended up being stuck in the city for the next two days. “All we had was the TV and alcohol,” he said.
Burke had two personal connections to the towers, which had been a landmark in Lower Manhattan since the early 70s.
Burke’s father, “Jack,” had helped build the towers in the early 70s as a New York City ironworker with Local 580. And one of Burke’s friends, a former iron worker who became a New York City firefighter, lost his life on September 11th, 2001 when the towers collapsed.
“I’d like everyone to take a brief moment this year to remember all those people who ran into the buildings as others were running out,” said Burke.
“It takes a special person to take an oath to serve and protect someone else,” said Burke. “Whether you’re a doctor, a nurse, a firefighter, a police officer, you’re saying that someone else’s life is more important than yours and even though I don’t know you I’m going to help you. That’s a special person.
“It’s important for us to ‘Never Forget,’” added Burke, “but that can’t just be a slogan. It’s got to be the actual action. And that’s what we’re trying to do here at Pickering Field on Friday night.”
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.