Memorial In Ridgefield Marks 25th Anniversary Of 9/11 Terror Attacks

Ridgefield’s 9/11 Memorial Ceremony is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 11 at 195 Danbury Road, according to the Town.

The somber ceremony will include the Ridgefield Police Department Honor Guard and the Ridgefield Volunteer Fire Department Color Guard.

Rabbi David Reiner of Congregation Shir Shalom is scheduled to give the invocation, followed by First Selectperson Rudy Marconi leading the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Ridgefield Nightingales will perform the national anthem.

Police Chief Jeff Kreitz and Fire Chief Rommie Duckworth are listed among the program participants. Namya Chouhan, Ms President US Ridgefield, is scheduled to give remarks.

The program also includes a reflection by the Rev. Dr. Fred H. Turpin, a reading by Ridgefield Poet Laureate Ira Joe Fisher, and an invitation from Marconi to lay a flower at the monument.

Piper Ian Underwood is scheduled to perform “Amazing Grace.” Tom Kimball is listed as the 9/11 flag bearer.

Daniela Sikora and the Ridgefield Chorale are also scheduled to participate. Deacon Rick Lawlor of St. Mary Church is scheduled to give the benediction.

In case of inclement weather, the service moves inside the Recreation Center.

The town also mourns three with ties to Ridgefield who were killed during the tragedy:

• Tyler Ugolyn, 23, Fred Alger Management, World Trade Center: One of the youngest victims, Tyler was a Columbia University graduate who began his dream job in the city as a research associate with Fred Alger Management Inc., in the World Trade Center. At 6-foot-4, he was a natural athlete who played basketball for Columbia. He helped start a youth basketball program in Harlem showing his heart and love of the youth and the game.
• Howard Joseph Heller, Jr., 37, Managed Funds Expert, Carr Futures: Howard was working on the 92nd floor of the World Trade Center in Tower 1 for Carr Futures on that tragic day. He and his wife Mary-Jean, and their four children, ages 8, 6, 4 and 16 months at the time, lived in a quaint yellow farmhouse in Ridgefield that he fixed up and restored himself.
• Robert Higley, II, 29, Client Services, Aon Corp.: Robert was working in the World Trade Center in Tower 2 on that tragic day. Rob moved to Ridgefield when he was 4 and later moved when he was 8-years-old. He kept three dear Ridgefield friends said his wife, Vycki Higley. They are godfathers to his daughters, Amanda and Robyn Elizabeth, who was born on Nov. 3.

Nationwide, the toll has continued to grow. Thousands of survivors, first responders and people who lived, worked or attended school near the attack sites have developed cancers and other illnesses linked to toxic exposure during the rescue, recovery and cleanup.

Former Presidents At Ground Zero

As is traditional, the names of the 2,977 people killed in the 9/11 attacks and six others who died in the 1993 World Trade Center attack will be read at a ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan.

Four former presidents — Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — are expected to attend the 25th-anniversary ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City.

President Donald Trump is not expected at Ground Zero. Vice President JD Vance will represent the administration in New York.

The ceremony will be livestreamed. That evening, the annual Tribute in Light will send twin beams into the sky, accompanied this year by a one-hour national broadcast beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC, Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic and ABC News Live.

Trump At Pentagon Observance

Trump will attend the 9/11 observance at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and flown into the structure.

Defense and military leaders traditionally gather for a ceremony centered on the memorial’s 184 illuminated benches, one for each victim. Details about public access to the Pentagon ceremony and a possible livestream had not yet been posted on the Pentagon Memorial’s official webpage on Tuesday.

Pennsylvania Memorial Details

The Flight 93 National Memorial, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, begins with an 8:30 a.m. ceremony that includes the reading of the 40 passengers’ and crew members’ names, the Bells of Remembrance, and wreath-layings timed to the four attacks.

A second ceremony begins at 1 p.m., and both will be livestreamed. A luminaria ceremony is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12.

Stephen M. Clark, the superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial, will lead the morning remembrance events. Confirmed speakers at the afternoon ceremony include Gordie Felt, the brother of Flight 93 passenger Edward P. Felt, and Capt. Morrie Wiener (Ret.), the pilot who flew Flight 93 prior to September 2001.

Trump administration officials are expected to attend and lay wreaths on behalf of the federal government, though top executive leaders are split across other national sites.

‘Steel Across America’

Trump hosted first responders and FDNY officials at the White House on Tuesday ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The event featured a 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower and carried across the country by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a nonprofit created in memory of FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller, who was killed responding to the attacks.

The foundation provides mortgage-free and specially adapted homes to families of fallen or severely injured first responders and military members, assists homeless veterans and supports 9/11 education and remembrance programs. Its 10,500-mile “Steel Across America” tour has taken the beam to more than 35 cities in at least 21 states and will conclude Friday at Ground Zero.