9-11 ‘Never Forget’ Ceremony at Rose Park on Friday

The annual 9-11 ‘Never Forget’ ceremony will be held with public attendance welcome at Rose Memorial Park on Friday, September 11.

Organizer Susan Campbell Reneau has been presiding over the annual ceremony since 2002, and said those who attend will be asked to wear masks and practice social distancing.

“We're encouraging people to stay a good distance from each other,” said Campbell Reneau. “One of the ways you can do it because we do not have seating is to bring your own lawn chair. We normally don't have more than about 30 people who attend, I mean it's not a huge crowd to begin with.”

Along with 7,000 American flags to be planted at the memorial, Campbell Reneau said the featured speaker will be Missoula County Undersheriff Rich Maricelli.

“He's going to be our keynote speaker to pay tribute to the hundreds of first responders who responded to the call,” she said. “When they saw that the airplanes hit the twin towers in New York, instead of running away like 25,000 plus people who were inside the twin towers and around Manhattan, they ran into it, as is the case when you're a hero.”

Campbell Reneau praised the courage of the first responders who gave their lives on 9-11, 2001.

“This is the largest number of first responders to ever die in the line of duty in the history of the United States,” she said. “And what's going on in all of our big cities right now riots and anarchists and I think it behooves us to thank our police officers and our EMTs and firefighters for running in the direction of danger.”

Flags will be placed starting at 6:00 p.m. to trumpet music by Ross Tate, and the ceremony will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Rose Memorial Park.