Morning
event honors heroes
By Jill Thomsen
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach Police and Fire departments will
host a Sept. 11 memorial sunrise service
beginning at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The service will be held at the Police and
Fire Department Memorial at Broadway and
Chestnut streets, and will feature Mayor
Beverly O’Neill and New York firefighter
Ray Seely. Seely is a 21-year veteran of
the New York Fire Department and lost nearly
90 percent of his co-workers in the Sept.
11 terrorist attack.
At 5:46 a.m., the moment the first plane
hit the World Trade Center, the chimes at
City Hall and area churches will ring and
there will be a moment of silence. Candles
will be passed out and lit as bagpipers
and a children’s chorus will lead the gathering
in “God Bless America” and the “Star Spangled
Banner.”
Although police Sgt. Don Field admits that
the service is early and will take dedicated
people to attend, he said he hopes the event
will be “a time of remembering the roughly
3,000 people who dies last year, many of
whom were police and firefighters.”
Long Beach Police Chief Jerome Lance, police
officer David Cohen and Fire Chief Terry
Harbor will also speak at the before-dawn
event. The Rev. Joe Ely, chaplain of the
Long Beach Police Department, will also
deliver an invocation.
Flowers can be brought to the memorial in
remembrance beginning the evening of Sept.10,
and free parking for the sunrise event will
be available at the Broadway parking garage
between Chestnut and Cedar streets.
|
