Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Hopewell Valley is marking the anniversary with several days of remembrance, beginning with the movement of a piece of World Trade Center steel Friday and culminating with a community ceremony Saturday at Woolsey Park.
The anniversary carries particular significance this year, a quarter-century after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people and forever changed the country.
In Hopewell Valley, preparations for the weekend’s remembrance were already underway Thursday evening, when more than 100 volunteers gathered at Woolsey Park to place American flags across the grounds surrounding the Hopewell Valley 9/11 and Emergency Services Memorial.
Among those helping were members of a Hopewell Valley youth football team, joining residents and other volunteers in preparing the memorial grounds for Saturday’s ceremony.
The Hopewell Valley Veterans Association will host the annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at Woolsey Park, 221 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road in Titusville.
The ceremony will honor the nearly 3,000 people who died in the attacks, remember the first responders and others who answered the call that day, and reflect on the lasting impact of Sept. 11.
World Trade Center steel moves to Capital Health
Another piece of the Hopewell Valley’s remembrance will make its annual journey Friday.
A portable piece of steel recovered from the World Trade Center will be moved from Hopewell Borough Hall to Capital Health Medical Center – Hopewell on Scotch Road, where it will remain on display for the next year.
The artifact rotates among locations throughout the Hopewell Valley as a traveling memorial to those who died in the attacks.
Last Sept. 11, local emergency services personnel escorted the steel through Hopewell Borough to Borough Hall, where Mayor Ryan Kennedy and members of the community gathered for a dedication ceremony.
Michael Chipowsky, chairman of the Hopewell Valley 9/11 and Emergency Services Memorial Committee and a retired police chief, spoke at that ceremony about the significance of continuing to move the artifact through the community.
“As the rubble was cleared and the World Trade Center site was rebuilt over several years, we were gifted this artifact from the ruins,” Chipowsky said at the time. “It stands today as a reminder that we must never forget the tragedy, but the will of the American people to rebuild and recover.”
For the past year, the steel has remained at Borough Hall. Its move to Capital Health on the 25th anniversary continues a tradition that has previously brought the artifact to other locations around the Valley, including the Hopewell Branch of the Mercer County Library.
A place to remember
Saturday’s ceremony will take place at the Hopewell Valley 9/11 and Emergency Services Memorial at Woolsey Park, where a larger World Trade Center steel beam serves as the centerpiece of the permanent memorial.
The annual gathering has become an opportunity not only to remember those killed on Sept. 11, but also to recognize the first responders who rushed toward danger that morning and members of the Hopewell Valley emergency services community who have died.
At last year’s ceremony, Chipowsky spoke about the responsibility of carrying those memories forward.
“It is our solemn duty to remember,” he said. “It’s said a person dies twice. The first, when they take their final breath, and the second, when their name is no longer mentioned. It is our duty to be sure that these heroes are never forgotten.”
This weekend, 25 years after the attacks, the Hopewell Valley will gather again to do just that.
If You Go
The Hopewell Valley 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony will be held Saturday, Sept. 12, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Woolsey Park, 221 Washington Crossing-Pennington Road, Titusville. The ceremony is open to the community and you are encouraged to bring a chair.
