SLO remembers first responders as ‘heroes and patriots’ on anniversary of 9/11 attacks
Community members gathered on an overcast Sunday morning in San Luis Obispo to mark the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
American Legion Post 66 partnered with the city of San Luis Obispo to host a 9/11 Day of Remembrance ceremony at the World Trade Center Memorial in front of Fire Station No. 1.
Sunday’s ceremony was in-person, following two years of virtual events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been 21 years since terrorists hijacked four planes and launched the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history, killing roughly 3,000 people on American soil,” the city said in a news release. “Among those who died that day were 403 emergency workers who responded to the tragedy.”
Those public responders, and the civilians who helped them, “will forever be remembered as heroes and patriots by a grateful country,” San Luis Obispo Police Chief Rick Scott said Sunday. “The first responders made the choice to run into danger, to run into the chaos, so that others would live. They did this by placing service above self.”
Highlights of Sunday’s ceremony included a bellringing ceremony, speeches by Scott and San Luis Obispo Deputy Fire Chief Michael Alforque and performances by the San Luis Obispo High School choir and Central Coast Pipe and Drums. Michael Smiley played “Taps.”
Emily Thompson, an eighth-grader at Laguna Middle School in San Luis Obispo, read her poem “Make the Choice.” And two American Legion writing contest winners from San Luis Obispo High School — Kyran Blau and Clara Landeros — spoke on the theme of “decisiveness.”
Proceedings paused briefly Sunday when one of the bagpipers abruptly collapsed after playing “Amazing Grace.”
Firefighters standing nearby sprang into action to help the man — demonstrating, as an American Legion representative said, “first responders doing what they do best.”
At the close of the ceremony, attendees laid white roses on the steel beam at the center of the World Trade Center Memorial designed by Kathleen Caricof, officially titled “Standing Tall.”
Dedicated in 2015, it features 403 vertical metal posts embedded in an arc — one for each fallen emergency worker — and a 1,500-pound steel beam from the World Trade Center.
Elsewhere in San Luis Obispo County, community members found their own ways to commemorate the anniversary.
AmpSurf held its annual 9/11 Paddle Out in Pismo Beach to honor those who lost their lives on Sept. 11.
At the Templeton High School stadium, members of the public joined Templeton Fire & Emergency Services firefighters in full gear for the 9/11 Remembrance Stair Climb.
Participants in the annual event climb the equivalent of 110 floors — the height of New York City’s World Trade Center — in support for those who died due to the 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93.
This story was originally published September 11, 2022 at 11:54 AM.
