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September 11th Attacks
Ground Level Exhibit • 10th Anniversary Memoral Events
The Martyred Fireman Poem • September 11th History Links
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The Aurora Regional Fire Museum will be participating in several local upcoming events to mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
Friday September 9th, 10am
Aurora Pauses to Remember
The City of Aurora is marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks with a remembrance ceremony that will honor families who lost loved ones and salute the bravery of emergency responders during the tragedy. The 9/11 commemoration ceremony will be held at 10:00am Friday, Sept. 9 at Aurora’s Central Fire Station, 75 N. Broadway Avenue.
Sunday September 11th, 6:30am
Metea Valley High School
Sunrise Service
To mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Metea Valley High School invites the community to attend a Sunrise Service on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011 at 6:30 am in the Courtyard of the school, 1801 N. Eola Road. The event will pay tribute, and honor the memory of the lives lost and the heroes of 9/11 through prose, song, interpretive dance and patriotic tributes. The Aurora Regional Fire Museum has loaned several pieces of fire equipment to the high school for inclusion in a 9/11 memorial exhibit.
Sunday September 11th, 7:30pm - Batavia Remembers Luminaries
A brief ceremony at the Peg Bond Center will be followed by the lighting of 3,000+ candle luminaries along the route of the Batavia Riverwalk adjacent to the municipal center and Depot Museum. The luminaries will be lit between 8 and 10pm and all area residents are invite to attend and reflect on their own personal memories of that date.
As part of the evening's opening program, members of the fire department will present "the bell ceremony," a fire service tradition which pays tribute to fallen firefighters in the line of duty, and Batavia’s 1948 American LaFrance fire engine -- on loan to the Aurora Regional Fire Museum -- will be central to that ceremony.
Sunday September 11th, 12:30pm - Naperville's Memorial to the Victims of September 11
The City of Naperville and the Naperville Exchange Club will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011 with a service at the Commdr. Dan Shanower Memorial. The Millennium Carillon bells will toll, at 12:30pm, and the Naperville Municipal Band will perform at 12:45. Presentations will begin at 1pm with a keynote address by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Richard Porterfield who served as Commander Shanower's superior officer.
The Commander Dan Shanower Memorial is located adjacent to the Naperville Municipal Center, in downtown Naperville along the DuPage River near the intersection of Aurora Avenue and Eagle St.
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Special exhibit at the Aurora Regional Fire Museum --
Ground Level:
September 11-14
The special exhibit Ground Level: September 11-14 will be hosted by the Aurora Regional Fire Museum. Originally produced in 2001, and on loan from Aurora Public Art Commission, this exhibit features more than a dozen images of the World Trade Center taken during and shortly after the September 11th attack.
These images are about being there, at the ground level, how it looked and felt in the days following September 11th. The photographs were taken with point-and-shoot cameras by people who had a workaday reason to be there — Tom Pasquarelli, a New York City Sanitation Supervisor; Vincent Piccolo, a New York City Sanitation worker; and Steve Bova, a crane operator who witnessed the tragedy.
The fire museum will also be exhibiting two cases filled with artifacts and memories that bring the tragic events close to home. One case, entitled "Aurora Responds," highlights the story of Aurora’s firefighters who responded to New York as part of a national rescue and relief effort. Another case "Aurora: Grieving, Morning, Rallying, and Remembering" contains mementos and memories from the citizens who grieved and reacted with a flurry of patriotism.
The Ground Level photographs and September 11th artifacts will be on exhibit at the Aurora Regional Fire Museum September 1st, though October 1st, 2011. Click here for hours and directions.
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The Martyred Fireman
By Frank J. Ottarson, and originally printed in
"The Fireman's Journal" April 2, 1881.
Fold gently o'er his silent breast
The honored badge he wore in death,
And reverent lay to peaceful rest --
With tearful eyes and bated breath --
The hero who nor shrunk nor quailed
When bravest hearts from terror failed,
When "Backward!" from the tottering wall --
"Back for your lives !" was cried by all.
But he nor feared, nor saw, nor heard,
He would not hear the backward word;
The path of duty lay before;
The fireman's badge he proudly wore
Would blush for shame if one should say
He shrank from danger. "Clear the way!"
Up to the front the hero came
To battle face to face with flame.
One thought he gave to hearts at home,
And eyes that laughed to see him come;
But "Duty, duty !" was the cry --
'Twas duty now to do or die,
He dashed the unbidden tear away,
And foremost led the dangerous fray;
The high wall tottered all aflame:
Then, like an avalanche, it came
Down thundering to the quaking ground,
And built the martyr's funeral mound
A shriek of horror! Like a flash
To work his brave companions dash;
With blistering hands they tear the pile --
Their hushed hearts beating low the while --
And soon with streaming eyes they bear
The martyr to the cool night air
Too late! The fatal work is done!
His crown of fame is dearly won;
Crushed by the cruel wall he lies,
Stern duty's latest sacrifice.
The victim of the battle's strife
Lives in our hearts a second life;
But who the unarmed hero knows,
Who, like this fireman, graveward goes
Contented, in a peaceful sphere --
To live without reproach or fear,
To do all that becomes a man,
And fill the grand though humble plan
By Heaven ordained? Shalt we forget
The hero whose bruised body yet
Seems quick with life? Let banners wave
O'er martyrs in a warrior's grave;
Here needs no muffled drum nor crepe;
Our very hearts to-day we drape
With sorrow, and sit down to mourn
The hero who will ne'er return.
Lay him to rest; his work is o'er;
Nor sins nor sorrows vex him more;
He filled the Maker's grandest plan,
And when be died he died for man.
See links to other September 11th websites...
National September 11 Memorial & Museum
http://www.911memorial.org
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center Foundation, Inc. began formal operations in the spring of 2005 and worked with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation on the design and construction of a memorial and museum dedicated to "remember and honor the thousands of innocent men, women, and children murdered by terrorists in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001... and recognize the endurance of those who survived, the courage of those who risked their lives to save others, and the compassion of all who supported us in our darkest hours."
New York City Fire Museum
http://www.nycfiremuseum.org
The New York City Fire Museum houses one of the nation's most prominent collections of fire related art and artifacts from the late 18th Century to the present. Among its holdings are painted leather buckets, helmets, parade hats and belts, lanterns and tools, volunteer-era hand pumped fire engines, horse drawn vehicles and early motorized apparatus.
The museum also maintains a memorial to the 343 members of FDNY who made the Supreme Sacrifice on September 11, 2001 and an accompanying exhibit of FDNY artifacts recovered from the Ground Zero site.
FEMA - Washington DC's Pentagon Files
http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=129
FEMA - NYC's World Trade Center Files
http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=127
FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Association) has an archive of documents, photographs, audio, and video files documenting the attacks.
Reflections on 9/11 - Ten Years Later
http://www.youtube.com/user/September11?blend=8&ob=5
YouTube and the New York Times have organized a special channel for videos relating to the September 11th attacks.
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