After a year’s hiatus, Valencia College will again honor the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001 with a virtual tribute on Friday.
Canceled last year due to the pandemic, this year’s ceremony takes on added meaning as it marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on American soil at the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the site of resistance leading to the plane crash in Shanksville, Pa.
The Osceola campus’ traditional display of 2,977 national flags, one for each person who died that day, has been installed and will remain up through Sept. 17. According to the school, the display will be open to the community as a place for personal reflection on the scale of the loss in the attacks.
The 20th anniversary remembrance, normally done in the shadow of Building 4 with the flags as a backdrop with speakers and military and first responder presence, will take place virtually at 10 a.m. It will include messages from local first responder agencies, elected officials and Valencia students.
It can be viewed at this link: https://valenciacollege.zoom.us/j/93815573245?pwd=cC83NFdBb2JyTkpkbytEdTdOM3ZuUT09
Webinar ID: 938 1557 3245
Password: 744714
The memorial service is the brainchild of Valencia College President Dr. Kathleen Plinske, who was then the Osceola, Lake Nona and Poinciana campuses. Started nearly a decade ago, it was intended, Plinske said, to give Valencia students, at that time likely too young to remember that day and its aftermath, a full grasp of what happened that fateful fall day in 2001. Now 20 years ago, most Valencia students were not even born yet.
“I’m happy we’re able to continue carrying on the tradition,” Plinske said.
