Members of the Alfred State College community conducted a solemn ceremony Friday in remembrance of the 10-year anniversary of 9-11 and the attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the plane crash in Shanksville (crash site of United 93), the three-pronged terrorist attack that shook our nation. SUNY Distinguished Professor Jim Grillo, who is also a Marine combat veteran of Vietnam, served as orator for the event. During his remarks, Grillo noted that the “horrific acts of a few were surpassed by the heroic acts of the many.” College President Dr. John M. Anderson told the assemblage of faculty, staff, students, fire fighters, and law enforcement organizations, including the Allegany Sheriff’s Department, NYS Police, and ASC University Police: “We assemble today to honor and demonstrate our unyielding gratitude to those who not only lost their lives on 9-11, but to all of those who have fallen in the pursuit of freedom and democracy. We honor those heroes and we have every right to remember all of the victims who passed that day as heroes. They died because–in the words of their attackers– they were Americans. They died because of how they lived–as free men and women, proud of our freedom, proud of our country, and proud of our country’s enduring cause—the cause of human freedom.” In addition to ASC speakers, student Kiefer Puma, Brooklyn, a junior in the college’s construction management engineering technology program, told the very personal and touching story of losing his mother in the attack on the towers when he was just 10 years old. Benjamin Knopf, Bloomfield, a student in the college’s building trades: building construction program played a very moving bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace.” Additionally, Laurie DeMott, pastor of the Union University Church, Alfred, gave the invocation and benediction. A release of 12 helium-filled (biodegradable latex) balloons concluded the tribute.
Community Remembers 10-year Anniversary of 9-11
