Among the many local 9/11 ceremonies held around the region on Monday was one that took place at the Brighton campus of Monroe Community College.
The early morning ceremony has been going on for nearly as long as the actual 2001 terrorist attacks. A concrete memorial, depicting the World Trade Center towers, was built the year after the attacks, with the help of several MCC student leaders, administrators and local businesses.
It was constructed so that at 8:45 a.m. every Sept. 11, the sun aligns with the monument, casting a shadow that bears a likeness to the Twin Towers that once stood in lower Manhattan.
Daniel Huffman is a Sgt. First Class in the U.S. Army and he’s also a local recruiter. He was also part of the ceremonies at MCC on Monday.
“I feel very honored, I mean, honestly, this is one of the reasons why I decided to get into the military in the first place,” said Huffman. “I was a sophomore in high school when 9/11 actually happened so I can remember exactly the pinpoint of everything going down.”
Joseph Leichtner is MCC Student Government Association President. Like a lot of his classmates, he wasn’t even born when the 9/11 attacks happened.
“I think it's really important to keep having the ceremony because for the people who especially weren't alive during 911 it's really important to just remember everything that happened,” said Leichtner. “And this just brings it to mind and helps honor and remember all the victims who, who died as a result and all the first responders who also did perish.”
A number of area firefighters came to the MCC ceremony, to remember the firefighters and other first responders who died in the 9/11 attacks.
