Members of the Sandhills Community College community, including students from Moore Innovative High School, joined community members Sept. 11 at First Responders Memorial Park on the Pinehurst campus to remember 9/11 and honor the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives and the individuals and families whose lives were forever impacted.
The ceremony included a welcome by Chad Williams, vice president of Student Services; presentation of the colors by the Southern Pines Fire Department; the national anthem performed by Emily Waldrop; opening remarks by Marianne Yoder, SGA president; a reflection and moment of silence led by Timothy James Justice, SGA vice president; the Firefighter's Prayer by a Sandhills Fire Academy cadet; the Police Officer's Prayer by Lt. Powers of the Southern Pines Police Department; tolling of the bell by the Southern Pines Fire Department; closing remarks by Richard Maness, SCC Board of Trustees member and retired chief deputy for the Moore County Sheriff's Office; and retrieval of the colors by the Southern Pines Fire Department.
Poignant remarks shared by Justice, a U.S. Air Force veteran, moved many as they reflected on the day:
“Today, we gather to remember September 11th, 2001—a day that changed our nation and left an absence in countless families that can never truly be filled. We remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives that morning. But today, I want to specially remember those who ran toward the danger while others were running away from it. Firefighters, police officers, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and countless other first responders entered the towers, the Pentagon, and the crash sites knowing only that people needed help. They did not know what the next few minutes would bring. They simply answered the call. Many never came home.
“Their uniforms were different. Their departments were different. Their individual stories were different. But they shared something fundamental: a willingness to place the lives of others before their own.
“As a veteran, I also want to remember those who answered another call in the years that followed. The men and women of our Armed Forces who deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places around the world carried the memory of September 11th with them. Some returned home. Some returned changed. And some never returned at all. Their names may not always be spoken alongside the names of those lost on September 11th itself, but their sacrifice is part of the same story of service. They were sons and daughters. Brothers and sisters. Parents, spouses, friends, classmates, and neighbors. They were students who once sat in classrooms much like ours. They had plans for their lives that would never be completed.
“Today is not a day to glorify war or to dwell on hatred. It is a day to remember the human beings behind the uniforms, the badges, and the names etched into memorials.
“We remember those who died saving strangers.
“We remember those who served because their country called upon them. And we remember the families, friends, and communities who have carried those losses for twenty-five years. May we honor their memory not simply by remembering how they died, but by remembering how they lived—and by striving to live with the same courage, compassion, and commitment to one another.
“We remember.
“We honor.
“And we will never forget.”