Flags are placed throughout Tempe Beach Park in memory of the Sept. 11 attacks. (Photo by Laura Moraes)Tourism management freshman Miryah Gauthier was 8 years old on 9/11 and only remembers her family’s exclamations of horror as local news stations replayed the fall of the Twin Towers.
It would be two years before Gauthier would understand the enormity of what happened, she said.
Most college students were in elementary school on Sept. 11, 2001. This year marks the 11th anniversary of the attacks.
“It happened so long ago, but it feels just like yesterday,” Gauthier said.
To remember the day, Gauthier said she and her family usually wear red, white and blue.
“It should be remembered for all those people and all their families,” Gauthier said.
Dietetics senior Jynea Watts was in fifth grade on 9/11. She watched the television footage with her family.
“(My dad) was saying, ‘Oh they’re not going to fall down, they’re not going to fall down,’” Watts said. “Then we saw them collapse and everyone was just silent ... it was terrifying.”
The 9/11 tragedy is a part of American history that will never go away, Watts said.
Watts, who works at a school, said younger generations must learn the importance of that day.
“If anything, it’s out of respect and to let (the children) know that we’re a strong nation,” Watts said. “We’re one when we need to be.”
Health sciences junior Darian Aceves said while he does not have any special plans for 9/11, it is a day that should be remembered and will continue to be remembered in the future.
“It’s history,” Aceves said. “We have to remember history. It’s like Pearl Harbor.”
He said, as a society, Americans can still feel the effects of 9/11 even though it happened more than a decade ago.
“It’s still affecting our economy,” Aceves said. “We’re still trying to build it up.”
Throughout the Valley, community members, students and city officials are coming together to memorialize 9/11 in different ways.
Chabad at ASU, a Jewish student organization, will host an event called the Mitzvah Marathon from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. by the Memorial Union in honor of 9/11 victims.
They will create the “Twin Towers of Good.” Students will pledge to do a good deed in the memory of one of the fallen.
Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel, who lived in New York City at the time of the attacks, said he hopes this event will make the world a better place.
The ASU College Republicans placed American flags around the Tempe Campus as a reminder of the lives that were lost.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and city manager David Cavazos will speak at a Phoenix City Hall ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The City of Tempe is hosting its 9th annual Healing Field at Tempe Beach Park.
About 3,000 flags were placed into the ground at Tempe Beach Park on Sept. 9. A memorial service will be held at 5:46 a.m. – which is about the same time the first plane hit the first tower.
Phoenix also has a permanent 9/11 memorial near the Arizona State Capitol in Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza.
Reach the reporter at tnhoman@asu.edu
