This year Manhattan remembered that day by holding a ceremony that the Big Blue Marching Band was invited to perform. The whole community was invited to the event especially veterans, and there were several members of the student body went too. The attacks that happened on Sept. 11 shook the world. All around the US when the anniversary comes Sept. 11, 2001, is remembered in different ways, but all honor the fallen and are thankful for those that survived.

Early this school year the MHS marching band was asked if they would like to perform at the memorial, and they immediately agreed. The directors looked at it as an honor to perform for those who passed away that day and the rest of the veterans. They performed “Fight Song” and “God Bless America”.

“[They] contacted us and said we were putting this, this event together and would like to know if the band would like to be a part of it. Of course, I’m all about that. I think community involvement, especially the things as important as a 9/11 tribute,” Joel Gittle, band director, said. “So it’s just an event to help keep that memory alive, which I think is very important to keep those memories alive so we can try to prevent it from happening again.”

Lori Bishop, executive director of the Retired Senior Volunteers Program, set up the memorial that happened on last Wednesday. Speeches from the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general and even a survivor from the incident at the Twin Towers.

“It was just a really cool experience,” Grace Warner, junior, said. “It was really neat to go out there and hear a lot of people’s accounts on what happened and where they were and what was going through their minds.”

Most of the student body wasn’t alive during the attacks that happened 17 years ago on Sept. 11. Those that were alive were just babies at the time and have no memories,  forcing them to rely on secondhand information as if it was from a history book. They know the story, even if they weren’t there.

“When Sept. 11 happened I was 9 months old. I can’t say I remember it but my dad was a police officer on the military at that time and it was a very scary time,” McKenzie Feather, senior, said. “I think it is very important to let those who protect us every day and let us live freely here know we support them that is why I think memorials like this are important.”