Performed atop the highest point in Brooklyn, N.Y. overlooking the site of the World Trade Center, “Memory Ground” is “a study in melancholy and a series of reflections on time and structure and memory, not just in relation to the 9/11 attacks but also in an abstract expression of loss and remembrance,”  said McDaniel, 27.“

Judith Lichtendorf, 78,  a lifelong Manhattan resident, said she was “shocked” by the music and the setting.

“I didn’t expect it to be this moving, it’s so beautifully written…It was really affecting and really beautiful, and the setting is crazy looking at all of the tombstones and all of the high rises, it’s a very magical, spooky place to be,” said Lichtendorf.

Patricia Flint, 57 a Brooklyn resident,  said the first work in the series was her ,“So love was crowned, but music won the cause,” was her favorite for its uplifting tone and energy despite the sadness and solemnity of the day. 

“[It] was such a beautiful commemoration of the day, something positive for today,” said Flint.

Ilene Richman, 57, of Brooklyn, said the music and setting were “very apropos.”

“This was a perfect place to come to today,” said Richman. “I don’t know much about classical music, but I enjoyed it. It’s just a really great place to be on a day like today.”

The musical event coupled with its location atop Battle Hill made finding peace and comfort more manageable than at other events like the National September 11 Memorial, said Lichtendorf.

“Every once in a while, I’ll go down to the site. It’s not a great place to be. It’s crowded, and there’s a big carnival feeling about it,” said Lichtendorf. “[Green-Wood Cemetery] just seemed like it was going to be an incredible place.”

For some New Yorkers, the weight of the 20th anniversary coupled with the end of the war in Afghanistan added additional pressure to an already heavy day.

Flint described the end of the war in Afghanistan, like the 9/11 attacks, as “so much loss of life and so much injury, devastating injuries, that all feels for nothing.”

Richman said not only are big anniversaries like the 10th or 20th “more difficult” for her than other years because the tragedy of the day is “totally unavoidable, it’s everywhere all week…it’s more resident and sadder than some of the in-between years,” but also “because of the disastrous end of the war in Afghanistan, it’s just feeling very futile and mired in death.”

“It’s just a waste of life on such a grand scale.”

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As a newly trained firefighter, Minogue was taking his first vacation day when he saw Flight 11 crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He grabbed his uniform and told his wife, “I’m going to work. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.” 

Minogue watched the towers fall as he drove along Grand Central Parkway. After arriving at the firehouse in Corona, Queens, Minogue was dispatched to Ground Zero. When his company got to the Twin Towers, “Everything just stopped in time. We walked through the glass and we saw the pit. We saw the World Trade Center.” 

Minogue said it was like a scene from a movie, with so much ash falling that it was almost black. He noticed how bizarre the rest of his company looked, 

“They were just covered, like somebody opened a bag of flour and dropped it on them,” he said.“Their eyelids were caked with it.” 

Three days later, Minogue’s role with the fire department changed. With 343 firefighters lost on September 11th, they needed someone to play taps, the 35 second song played by a single trumpet at the end of service member’s funerals. 

 “So, I would still go to work, then I would go to a funeral to play taps. Sometimes two, sometimes three funerals a day. In the end, it got so busy I was pretty much offline,” Minogue said. 

With only one other bugler in the NYFD, Minogue played taps at around 170 9/11 memorial services. Yet, each song was never the same.

“I played it different for everybody, because everybody is unique,” he said.“I think everybody needed a different song. Ya know, for me, it’s a gift that I could give back.”

Minogue kept playing taps as a fire department lieutenant, but in 2006 he developed a cough. At age 46, Minogue developed stage four throat cancer and high-grade bladder cancer from exposure to the 9/11 ash and debris.

 “Everything I had done with the ceremonial unit was over, they had to run without me,” he said. The illnesses forced Minogue to retire and leave the fire department. 

As of September 2021, over 200 active and retired NYC firefighters have died of illnesses linked to 9/11 according to the Scientific American. Even more have developed cancer and survived, including Minogue, who said it was because of his strong attitude.

“Two doctors, separately, would call me the poster boy,” he said. “My friend Mark and I had radiation burns and our faces were all red, but we were always smiling and laughing.” 

Many of Minogue’s friends and colleagues also deal with the lasting health effects of being at Ground Zero. The destruction of the Twin Towers created an ash of computers, concrete, and pipes that first responders inhaled. In 2019, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute published a study finding that 9/11 first responders are 25% more likely to develop prostate cancer, 41% more likely to develop Leukemia, and two times more likely to develop thyroid cancer compared to other people. 

On this 20th anniversary of 9/11, Minogue is still playing taps on his trumpet, but said he doesn’t have enough breath to hold the last note. Despite all of his health problems, he said he would still go back and do the same thing again. 

“When you’re on this earth, you have to do the best you can for others, without asking anything in return,” he said. “That’s it.”

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 “The atmosphere here, it’s so unbelievably quiet for being downtown in New York City,” said Jorge Nunez, a 20 year old exchange student from Spain. “You can see the pain on people’s faces from what happened 20 years ago, but you can feel the peace and unity.”

A woman holds a paper with the times of the 9/11 attacks. Hundreds of people surround her in silence, tears, and hugging at Ground Zero to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Photo by Maggie Geiler

At 8:46 a.m. the first moment of silence began in remembrance of American Airlines Flight 11 hitting the North Tower of The World Trade Center. Although only families of the victims were allowed inside the ceremony, thousands surrounding Church Street could have been mistaken for family, hugging each other and streaming the ceremony live from their phones. One lady offered to share her phone with a group of strangers, crying while Bruce Springsteen’s “I’ll See You In My Dreams” echoed from people’s phones throughout Lower Manhattan.

 “I was down here the day it happened,” said Sheila Ondracheck, 54, from Chicago. “This is the first time I’ve been back. Every year on this day I write a letter to each of my closest friends to tell them how much I love them and to live life to the absolute fullest, because you just never know how much time you have left.”

 More moments of silence followed at 9:03 a.m., commemorating United flight 175 hitting the South Tower, 9:59 a.m., when the South Tower collapsed, and 10:28 a.m., when the North Tower collapsed. People continued to weep and hug, some of which were Millennials and Gen Z.

 “It’s beautiful to see all the people that have come together from different backgrounds, ethnicities and cultures and are respecting each other,” stated Makenna Murphy, 18, a student in New York City. “Even though I wasn’t born yet when [9/11] happened, I feel like I have seen the repercussions of it. Between The Patriotism Act and the amping of security, it’s crazy how one event can have such an egregious impact on the world.”  

 While close to 3,000 people died from the attacks, according to USA Today, nearly 10,000 first responders and others in the World Trade Center have been diagnosed with cancer and more than 2,000 have died from health complications attributed to 9/11. First responders and cancer survivors were not invited to the ceremony.

Dotti Cappola, Ground Zero first responder, returns 20 years later as a cancer survivor to advocate for those who’s health has been impacted from the attacks. “20 years ago, we came here to help people… today, I came for closure.” Photo by Maggie Geiler

 “We were set up right on the pile manning the tents nonstop, this is our first time back,” said Dotti Cappola, 62, a 9/11 Disaster Medical Assistance Team first responder from Boston. “We were hoping to get in but they won’t let us in, it’s hard because there’s so many of us.”

 Cappola said that not only is she a 9/11 first responder but a 9/11 cancer survivor.

 “I’m a 9/11 cancer survivor. Five from our team got cancer, one of our best friends who worked our tent passed. There was debris in our mouth and eyes for weeks. I came here for closure,” said Cappola through tears.

 Although Cappola said that it hasn’t been easy getting the care she needs, she said for her and friend Mike Vojak, it’s not about acknowledgement but remembrance.

 “We took a lot of pictures in our own mind that we can’t get rid of,” said Vojak, 62, also a 9/11 Disaster Medical Assistance Team first responder from Boston. “I remember part of the towers were on that highway over there, they fell in a way that looked like they were hands giving up souls to God. For 20 years I haven’t been able to get that out of my mind… today it’s nice to see people remember. This is my closure.”

Both Cappola and Vojak tied ribbons of remembrance for their teammate who died on a gate across from where the Twin Towers stood.

 “We just tell people we hope they don’t forget,” Cappola said. “There are so many lives affected – still so many dying from laten cancer. This country needs to come together now more than ever because this can happen again.”

 The ceremony continued while names of those killed in the attacks were read into the afternoon.

 “When we needed something during that time, people came together and provided,” said Cappola. “The letters, the lunches from students, the truckloads of socks for the firefighters burned feet… we stood together as a nation. It’s nice to see people standing together today.” 

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 Interfaith parishioners, religious leaders, and 9/11 mourners gathered in the shadow of the World Trade Center to watch St. Nicholas’s translucent Greek marble–mined from the same vein that supplied the Parthenon–glow for the first time in the darkening evening.

 Archbishop Elpidophoros of America led those gathered in a Greek Orthodox mass service: the resurrection service usually reserved for Easter. Attendees, dressed elegantly in somber colors, wordlessly tilted their memorial candles to light one another’s flames. Turning to face the church and with his candle held aloft, Archbishop Elpidophoros commemorated the attacks and all those who died in them.

 “The day of 9/11 was no less than the crucifixion of our nation, and the reopening of St. Nicholas is its resurrection,” said Archbishop Elpidophoros.

 Light cascaded from the building’s dome to its foundation in a spiritual display.

 The rebirth of St. Nicholas Church was long beset by financial and construction difficulties. Building began in 2014, following years of negotiations with the Cuomo administration that yielded a land swap: 155 Cedar Street was exchanged for the nearby and four-times-as-large plot that now houses the church at 130 Liberty Street. 

 One of the final components of 9/11 rebuilding in Lower Manhattan, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine is set to open its doors later this fall. This reopening is the result of, “construction literally around the clock, the fundraising that made this possible, and the prayer that brought us to this day,” said the Archbishop.

 In its new location, St. Nicholas is just a stone’s throw from its old site, and it overlooks the World Trade Center

The rebuilt Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine glows in the shadow of the World Trade Center, twenty years after its destruction on 9/11. Photo by Annie Iezzi

Plaza, which was teeming with security guards the evening of the event. Also in attendance were members of The Friends of St. Nicholas, a nonprofit 501(c)3 that gathered funds internationally for the project. As of this fall, the diocese and The Friends of St. Nicholas have raised $95 million for reconstruction, lighting embedded in the walls, and upkeep of the church and national shrine.

 Barbara Katsos, the wife of a member of the Friends of St. Nicholas and a longtime attendee of the original church, called the evening a “monumental moment.” 

 “The light, for me, represents the resurrection of St. Nicholas and the resurrection of New York City,” she said, noting that the church has been a bastion of the Greek community for generations. “It began as a tavern,” she said, “where all of the Greek immigrants from Ellis Island would come to rest.”

 In 1916, the tavern was converted into a church by Greek community members and named for Saint Nicholas, the saint of seafarers, who protected their journey to America. Now, the rebuilt church and shrine displays imagery both religious and secular, featuring carvings depicting saints alongside portraits of 9/11 first responders. Committed to providing an interfaith space of reflection, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine will host mass, as well as educational events and memorials for mourning families on its two dedicated bereavement floors.

Carmen Alexandra, a Greek Orthodox woman who attended college across from the Twin Towers and worked at the Chase Bank Plaza nearby, shares that she visits Ground Zero every year to reflect. Photo by Annie Iezzi

 “Did my faith bring me through? Yes. I had friends who died very young, related to 9/11,” said Carmen Alexandra, who attended Borough Manhattan Community College across from the Twin Towers.

 She would eat lunch at The Sphere, a sculpture that stood between the towers and was crushed by their debris. Its crumpled shell has since been relocated to the campus of St. Nicholas Church and transformed into a 9/11 memorial, which Carmen Alexandra visits every year.  

 During the service, she coughed quietly, the flame of her candle wavering as she moved. Following the attacks, Carmen Alexandra worked in the nearby Chase Bank Plaza, which she said has given her long-term respiratory and lung problems, before becoming a nun. 

 “I thought I should be working,” she said. “Everybody I knew was leaving the city. But I wanted to stay here. I wanted to be in my city; I wanted to be here.”

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Thomas E. Franklin was a photographer at the Bergen Record when his editor told him a plane had crashed into The World Trade Center. 

“ I quickly ran, grabbed my camera, ran to my car and started driving.”

Franklin, 53,  got on a boat which took him to Lower Manhattan and he rushed to Ground Zero. There he captured the iconic image of the flag being raised by firefighters.  In 2002, the celebrated photograph was highlighted in a postal stamp. It raised over $10 million which went towards victims and their families. 

“It represents thousands of people who died. That’s what the photograph is, it could never be forgotten,” Franklin, now a freelance multimedia journalist and professor at  Montclair State University, said. 

 He said after the second plane crashed into the tower, he knew this was a news story unlike any other and that his job was really important. 

 “I was aware of how important it was to take photos that day because of the magnitude of what was happening,” he said.

Thomas E. Franklin

On the 18th anniversary of 9/11, the photographs of Franklin and other photojournalists’ work to bear witness to the memories of the day when nearly 3,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the U.S.

 After receiving a call from the director of Contact Press Images, freelance photographer, Frank Forunier got on his bicycle and left his home on Roosevelt Island. He pedaled as fast as he could across the Queensborough Bridge.

“Cars were being stopped from getting across,” said Fournier, 70. “I managed to pass in between cops and I kept going.” 

Fournier said that he was near 7 World Trade Center when the fire chief approached him. He was told the building was on the verge of collapse and he would be killed if he stayed.

“So I slowly walked back, really slowly, trying to take pictures of firemen,” he said. “The building collapsed. We were covered with an enormous amount of dust, very heavy. You couldn’t see your hands, anything. It was extremely dense fog, you could barely breathe.”

Franklin said the journalists who worked on 9/11 were very brave.

“Oftentimes they are running towards danger while people are running away from danger,” said Franklin.

Today, at the Sept. 11 memorial in New York City, journalists and photographers gathered to document the anniversary of the attack. They reminded their audiences of the lives lost on this day. Interviewing visitors, residents, and victims loved ones to give a voice.

 “They documented the worst of humanity, at a very hard time,” said Ryan Girdusky, 32, a writer and a New York Political Correspondent for One America News Network.  “They become ingrained in our memory.”

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The families of 9/11 victims gathered at the 9/11 Memorial Museum Wednesday to remember, mourn and give voice to the trauma they have endured. 

Karmen Garcia lost her daughter when two planes crashed into the World Trade Center.,

“She is my daughter,” she said in Spanish. “I was living in Brooklyn, and I saw the planes crash on television. My daughter was 21 years old when she was working inside the building.”

Her daughter, Marlyn Garcia, who was working at an insurance company inside the World Trade Center, was on the 100th floor when the first plane hit the North Tower. Garcia was watching television at the time of the attack and knew that she wouldn’t see her daughter again. 

“I immediately felt trauma from the attack and I still feel a lot of pain to this day,” she said. “I had to move from Brooklyn to Florida because of it and it’s hard for me to return to New York.”

Garcia and her friend were wearing shirts with a photo of Marlyn and the year she was born. They attend the memorial every year. 

Rosie Jaquez, from Corona, Queens, feels anxious every time she returns to Ground Zero. Her sister, Milly Jaquez, was a business owner and lived near the World Trade Center. Milly survived the attacks on the Twin Towers, but she became sick the last few years. In January, Milly died from liver cancer. 

“She started to begin coughing, getting sick, Jaquez said.” I don’t know exactly all the symptoms, but she was getting slim and stuff like that. It occurred for five years.” 

At first, Milly didn’t realize her cancer stemmed from 9/11.  She realized it when her friends were diagnosed with cancer at the same time as her. 

“Then you know, she realized it was 9/11,” she said. “I didn’t ask questions because when you know, you know. It’s hard asking people questions, even family. It’s sad, it’s really sad.” 

Jaquez said she has PTSD. 

“It does affect you,” she said. “You get nervous, you think about it. It’s hard to remember, and you get flashbacks. I am in my sister’s house right now, and there’s trauma there. I am on the 30th floor. I can see the building, I see everything. You will never forget.” 

Diane Massaroli left the ceremony, carrying a photo of her late husband. She was living in Staten Island and getting her kids ready for school when the attacks happened. Her sister-in-law was the first to call her that day. Her sister said, “Put the TV on, and which building does my brother work in?” 

Massaroli’s s husband, Michael Massaroli, was working on the 101st floor when the plane crashed into the North Tower. He worked at the brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald. 

“All I can remember is I had to get my son to school,” she said. “Everything felt crazy, but I knew I had to get him out of the house.”  Massaroli and her children use this memorial as a cemetery to remember Michael. 

She battles what she called a “sort of PTSD.”

“When the weather changes, I feel more upset,” she said. “Certain smells trigger my anxiety. After this day is over, I feel exhausted, but I feel a relief that I can move on with the rest of the year. When this day comes, it’s right back to that day. Like 18 years never passed.” 

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On the 18th anniversary of 9/11, young adults who grew up in the aftermath of the attacks said they don’t know a time when the threat of terrorism has not been a part of their lives. 

“There wasn’t a first time I heard about 9/11 or the first time I heard about terrorism because it was so prevalent,” Andrew Larkin, an 18-year-old NYU student, said. “Basically, I understood that bad people wanted to hurt America, which is obviously not the entire story, but it’s the very stripped down 4-year-old version.”

Recently, a law requiring schools in New York to hold a moment of silence during the anniversary of 9/11 was passed. 

“I think that’s good,” he said. “It’s respectful. Especially in New York, where it happened,” 

It was precisely in school, around the third grade, that Clara Luce, a 19-year-old NYU student, remembered learning about the attacks of 9/11.

Clara Luce, a 19-year-old NYU student remembers having been made aware of 9/11 during school. By Catarina Lamelas Moura

 “It’s hard for us to understand such a scary thing happening, just because it didn’t happen when I was a thinking person,” she said. “So it doesn’t feel as real to me.”

The Michigan native reckons that the lost sense of security people endured was one of the greatest consequences of 9/11. 

“Maybe, as a culture, we have a feeling of being afraid of people other than us because we’ve been hurt before,”she said. “Growing up without really experiencing 9/11, I don’t have that same type of fear that someone coming into the country is a terrorist. I would definitely say I’m more worried about being shot than a terrorist attack.”

Having grown up in a conservative surrounding, Larkin points to the sense of patriotism associated with the aftermath.

“Before 9/11 — I don’t know if this is true, because I didn’t have any opinions before — maybe I would have been more free to express my political opinions and say things that were not considered American,” Larkin said. “I am a socialist, so that’s something that’s really frowned upon in Utah, and it’s something that I can’t talk about, because there is this sense that it’s not American, it’s not good.”

To these young people, the events that followed 9/11 are part of history.

“The glorification of the military response is something that’s kind of dangerous,” Larkin said. “I think it’s taught implicitly that these people wanted to hurt America and so we are rising up against them.”

Natalie Doggett, 20, is from New Jersey and remembers her mother saying that her aunt “got caught in everything that was happening” in New York,on 9/11. By Catarina Lamelas Moura

Natalie Doggett, a 20-year-old from New Jersey, remembered her mother saying that her aunt “got caught in everything that was happening” in New York on September 11. It took her aunt about 10 hours to get home.

 “I remember being taught about it in elementary school. I remember being taught to perceive it as a really bad thing,” Doggett said. “I don’t think islamophobia was taught to us, but I do think we were taught to look at Muslim people as the enemy. Obviously it was a horrific event, but I know better than to attach that event to all Muslim people and to perpetuate that kind of islamophobia.”

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Held inside the museum’s 9/11 permanent memorial room, the service contained the presentation of the colors, singing of the national anthem, invocation, remarks and laying of the wreath. 

“I encourage all of you to spend some time and think about the choices they had to make,” First Deputy Commissioner of FDNY Laura Kavanagh said in her speech. “Not only did they make the ultimate sacrifice, but they really left behind the foundation and legacy to save people’s lives.”

Housed in two adjoining rooms, the 9/11 memorial room serves as the first permanent memorial for the firefighters lost during the attacks. In the center of the exhibition stands a black marble and tile memorial with the names and images of each firefighter.

The exhibit also includes used tools and items recovered from the Ground Zero, a timeline and media coverage of 9/11 events, an interactive computer station and images of national tributes to the FDNY.

Within the 9/11 memorial at NYC Fire Museum, a timeline of September 11, 2001, is displayed chronicling the tragic events happened during that day, along with the responding rescue and recovery efforts. Photo by Shiyu Xu

Gary Urbanowicz, director of the NYC Fire Museum, gave his condolences to the past and welcomed the visitors who came to the museum to pay their respect. 

“This memorial is a very special place for all of us,” Urbanowicz said. “Those heroes turned words into actions and that inspired me to make our commitment to never forget.”

For those who share the haunting experience, visiting the memorial has become their annual routine. 

Merill Resnick, 72, who used to work a few blocks away from the Twin Towers, recalled his memory of this day 18 years ago. 

“I was working, watching the news and constantly going back to the window to see what was going on,” Resnick said. “I remember when the second tower collapsed, I looked out of the window, and there was nothing there. It took around 10 minutes for the smoke to reappear again. For me, it was a haunting experience.” 

Resnick witnessed the firefighters as first responders going into the unknown. He said that he has been in this room many times, and “each time it becomes more and more heartening.”

“I just noticed today that this room is actually an addition to the museum,” Resnick said. “It’s beautiful, but it’s the addition I’d rather not see.” 

Former director of the museum, Judith Jamison, 78, also pays a visit to the memorial every year. For her, the character of the firefighters is something she finds “absolutely amazing.”

Former Director of the museum Judith Jamison, center, pays her condolences during the invocation for the 9/11 memorial service at the NYC Fire Museum on September 11, 2019. Photo by Shiyu Xu.

“The best thing about the museum is to talk to the firefighters who have volunteered to work here and get their stories,” Jamison said. “It’s inspiring to work with people like this, and it’s inspiring to the country to know what happened down 9/11.”

Jamison also said that after retiring from FDNY, many volunteered as docents in the museum to help educate the public.

A new addition to the museum, a survivor tree recovered from the 9/11 attack, was planted back in June to serve as a tribute to the lives of 343 firefighters and the 200 that lost their lives from 9/11 related disease and illness.

“The tree is a tribute and reminder for all of us to never forget,” Urbanowicz said.

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The barefoot dancers were part of the Table of Silence Project 9/11  and they moved to the ritualistic sounds of conchs, flutes, drums and vocalizations. But at 8:46 a.m., the time when the first plane hit the World Trade Center’s north tower, the performers observed one minute of silence as they raised their arms to the sky. 

The Table of Silence Project 9/11, conceived and choreographed by Jacqulyn Buglisi, began in 2011. It’s dedicated to “all who suffer from oppression of freedom and the tragedy of war” and photojournalist Bill Biggart, who died in the twin towers.

“We’ve got enough destructive impulses in the world,” dancer and associate founder of Buglisi Dance Theater Christine Dakin said. “As human beings, we have those destructive impulses, but art is creative and positive. Using that power that an individual artist and human being can have for something positive is maybe not a duty of the artist, but it’s certainly a power that the artist can have.” 

Dakin, 70, considered the performance itself as a vehicle for the dancers to unearth their own capabilities as artists.

Christine Dakin is a dancer and Buglisi Dance Theater associate founder. She danced in tribute performance Table of Silence Project 9/11. By Amanda Pérez Pintado

“For some of them, I think it’s a discovery,” the Bronx resident said. “I think that they’re very surprised by that and surprised by what they have in themselves. It gives us a chance to experience and show to the outside world what the individual can do and what the individual artist can do.”

 She said the community of dancers that participate in the tribute has expanded in ethnicity and age since the inaugural performance nine years ago. 

One of the younger dancers in today’s presentation was MaryBeth Rodgers, 21, of the Upper West Side, who danced in the tribute for the first time last year. 

“Table of Silence to me means taking some tragedy, some negative, horrible thing and offering a peaceful and unifying solution in something as tragic as 9/11, especially for New York City,” Rodgers said. “There needed to be something for people to heal and recognize the moment that happened and move on together stronger.”

For Rodgers, a Fordham University junior, art is an important coping mechanism to recover from tragedies such as the Sept. 11 attacks, which claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people. 

“Something like this ritual performance, it feels religious to me,” she said. “Art is a way for us to recognize something that maybe we can’t put into words or maybe we can’t talk about because we don’t know how to talk about the death, the tragedy or the trauma that happened, but we can at least experience it and express it through art.”

Rodger’s father, Brian, had seen last year’s performance online, but this year he had the opportunity to see his daughter dance in person. 

“It’s a big difference in person,” he said. “It’s more intimate. You can hear the sounds of the city in the background.”

For the New Jersey native, Sept. 11 is a “big day for New York City and we have to remember it.” 

Over 100 people danced in the Table of Silence Project 9/11. The tribute performance was held at Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza. By Amanda Pérez Pintado

Performer John Ragusa, 62, said that the tribute is not only a remembrance of Sept. 11 but also an expression of peace and aspiration for a better world through art.

“We gather with a lot of direction from the creator and choreographer with a very strong center of peace and hope, and there’s a lot of effort made in rehearsals and before performance to get everybody focused,” the flutist and Upper West Side resident said. “It’s not just a choreography or a performance, it’s very much a unified presence of what we hope this world can be and we believe in our hearts is beautiful.”

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The National Day of Service and Remembrance event Wednesday was held in partnership with non-profit organizations 9/11 Day, Feeding Children Everywhere, and the Corporation for National Community and Service.

“I was here the day of 9/11 and it was such a devastating day,” said Tracy Stein of the UJA Federation of New York. “So the idea that we can come together in as New Yorkers common cause to do something good and important is really gratifying and it just makes the day more bearable to helping others.”

From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., volunteers from more than 40 companies, interfaith groups and organizations worked in two-hour shifts. At the beginning of every shift, religious leaders from multiple faiths provided a blessing for the volunteers, as well as a moment of silence for those lost. 

Special guest performances also came out to unite and inspire the crowd, including the cast of the Broadway musical “Come From Away.” The show tells the story of when 38 planes and thousands of passengers were diverted to the town of Gander, Newfoundland, on September 11, 2001.

David Wein, co-writer of Broadway musical “Come From Away” takes a quick break from assembling boxes of oatmeal to pose for a picture. After performing for volunteers, the cast joined their crew, writers, and other volunteers, to meal pack. Come From Away tells the story of how 38 planes and thousands of passengers were diverted to the town of Gander, Newfoundland on September 11, 2001. Photo by: Maureen Mullarkey

“The people of Gander opened their hearts and their homes and they gave everything,” said co-writer David Hein. “We were New Yorkers at the time when my wife and I wrote the story and we remember those days as seeing kindness in New York in response to that. And when we went out to Gander to interview everyone for the show, we realized that like Mr. Rodgers said, when his mother said there were scary things on TV that you should always look for the helpers. And what we saw in Gander, we said there were the helpers in the world on that day and that we could be the helpers as well.”

Despite the long hours, volunteers kept in high spirits. Some participated in friendly competitions, dancing along to a DJ’s upbeat music as they packed bags of brown sugar oatmeal.

“We have a great volunteer base,” said Sarah Davila, Public Relations Manager for Feeding Children Everywhere. “We have an amazing team, good energy, good attitude.”

The packaged food will be donated to City Harvest and will be distributed to about 1.2 million people; roughly 10,000 meals will be sent to Hurricane Dorian victims in the Bahamas.

Jorge Garcia of Forest Hills, Queens, knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of kindness.

“Being a veteran myself, I know how much it means. When we used to receive care packages of this nature, it meant so much to us,” Garcia said. “Like someone does care, someone’s out there thinking of us. So I want to be able to give that back to them. And I bring my daughter now, she helps out too.”

For some volunteers, 9/11 Day is not only an annual tradition, but a commitment that requires international travel.

Maureen Basnicki (left) and her fellow group of Canadian volunteers celebrates a victory – packing more boxes than any other group on the Intrepid floor. Over two million meals will be provided to City Harvest. Photo by: Maureen Mullarkey

“This is my second year. I drove down from Canada and my son flew in from Lisbon, Portugal,” said Maureeen Basnicki, who works with the Canadian consulate and lost her husband on  9/11. “It’s a national day of service in Canada and it’s gaining momentum as well.”

The event also took place in seven other cities throughout the country, including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Atlanta, St. Louis and Phoenix. Together, more than 5,000 volunteers will have participated in the federally-recognized September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“Whether we’re remembering those who served our country, or just remembering the first responders, firefighters, police, it really doesn’t matter what nationality you are, it’s the combined spirit of doing it,” said Basnicki.

“The best legacy that we can leave for our loved ones is to honor their life by doing acts of service.”

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