A former firefighter, Ohio University student senators and Republican and Democrat student leaders joined forces to commemorate the victims of Sept. 11 on College Green today.
Students planted three red, white and blue wreaths in the grass on College Green. The wreaths shared the stage with a display of 3,000 flags that several organizations lined up on the ground to honor the 2,977 people who died as a result of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“We’re a big university, and we realized that even if this event is small, we needed to do something for the 10-year anniversary,” said Taylor Abbott, state and federal affairs commissioner for Student Senate. “I know a student whose uncle didn’t make it out of the towers, but her dad did. I thought, We’ve got to do something. I felt strongly about that.”
The three wreaths represented the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pa., Abbott said.
For the first time, members of the College Democrats joined in on the commemorative events.
“We figured on the 10th anniversary, we needed to put politics aside,” said Nick Tuell, president of the College Democrats. “This brought a lot of our members together today, just by doing this small thing.”
Tuell and Ryan Dilworth, president of the College Republicans, set up one wreath together. Abbott and Mary Kate Gallagher, city and county affairs commissioner, carried the second wreath, and Abbott lifted the third with Ed Gaither, a senior studying specialized studies and a former firefighter.
Gaither was 17 when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred, and his father was a firefighter at the time. Soon after, Gaither became a firefighter as well. He now serves as the non-traditional student affairs delegate to senate’s Minority Affairs Commission.
“I remember my dad saying, ‘At any moment, I could get the call to go to New York,’” Gaither said. “And even though I wasn’t a firefighter when the incident happened, I still feel connected. It alters your outlook and really draws you closer to people who understand that.”
Although Student Senate invited several city officials to the ceremony, including Mayor Paul Wiehl, the event’s planning was last-minute, and the ceremony ended up being conducted only by students, Abbott said.
Although there wasn’t time to coordinate the attendance of Athens Police and Fire Department members, the ceremony honored them as well, he said.
“They’re here when we need them, and this is just our thank-you to them,” he said. “We don’t think anything like what happened in New York will happen here, but if it did, we know we’d be in good hands.”
rm279109@ohiou.edu
