How ISU, Bannock County will memorialize the 25th anniversary of 9/11
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POCATELLO – Residents of Bannock County will have the opportunity to honor the victims of one of the darkest days in American history, two and a half decades later.
Events are planned at both Idaho State University and the Bannock County Courthouse on Friday, which is the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Both events will allow eastern Idahoans, many of whom have no memory of the day, the chance to memorialize the victims of the deadliest terrorist attack in history.
Enough time has passed since 9/11 that no traditional college students were born when the attacks took place, with students presently in their senior year born somewhere between 2004 and 2006. Because of this, an organizer at the university spoke about the responsibility staff hold for teaching students about the attacks.
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“We’re pivoting a little bit … and shifting to an education focus, which aligns really well because we’re a university, and it really is special to be able to kind of tell (students) what it was like,” said Kayla Fielder, lead grant project coordinator with ISU’s Institute of Rural Health.
To commemorate the anniversary, ISU’s 9/11 Day of Service AmeriCorps program will be holding its 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. Students, faculty, firefighters and members of the public will climb the equivalent of 110 flights of stairs on the stands of Davis Field, in honor of the 110 flights of stairs in the Twin Towers.
And in honor of it being the 25th anniversary, the event will also have a tribute tunnel.
“We are filling this tribute tunnel with memorial art. So we have local artists providing paintings, poems, recorded dances (and) dramatic readings,” Fielder explained.
This event will take place at Davis Field this year from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Additionally, the event will also feature a memorial path, with posters of facts about the first responders who died while responding to the attacks.
Bannock County will be holding a memorial service on Friday as well, which will start at 5:30 p.m. Melissa Hartman, the Bannock County veteran services coordinator, told EastIdahoNews.com the event is typically a smaller and more intimate one, with around 30 to 50 people in attendance, but is open to any members of the public who want to attend.
The memorial service will be held by the flagpole of the Bannock County Courthouse, where Judge Rick Carnaroli will read from a script called “The Events as they Unfolded.”
“It is a detailed listing of the events as they unfolded. So, as each significant event happened on Sept. 11. We actually stop during the ceremony … and then one of the first responders will actually toll a bell,” Hartman explained.
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After the memorial service has concluded, everyone is invited to attend a spaghetti and meatballs dinner at the Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building. The dinner is free of charge and open to the public.
Something that Hartman said is important for people to remember is not just the events that took place on Sept. 11, 2001, but also the next day, which the dinner can remind people of.
“We remember Sept. 11, but then experience Sept. 12 also. Everybody was united,” Hartman said.
“It’s amazing that we get the honor … (of) celebrating … together, because we showed that we could show up for each other as a nation,” Fielder said.
Hartman sees these events as a continuation of the promise people made as a nation to never forget what took place that day.
“We really want to make sure that we encourage our community to remember those events that changed our country as a whole,” Hartman said.