Despite the fact that they were only 2 and 3 years old when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred, more than a dozen students from Chesterton High School stood in the rain and darkness early Friday to place 2,977 American flags on the lawn of their school.
It was a reminder, a way to pause and remember for motorists who pass by the corner of 11th Street and 1100 North, said Hayley O’Keefe, a junior at the high school and organizer. She said writing each name on each flag and placing them in rows in the ground is important.
“We want to remember what happened and do something to remember all of the people who died and need to be recognized,” O’Keefe said.
The tradition of placing the flags was one started in 2004 by her sister, Kathleen O’Keefe, when she was a student at CHS.
Their Lisa O’Keefe, who also came out to help place the flags Friday, said the family felt a call to action.
“When 9/11 happened, my daughter Kathleen became so inspired to do something, and even went into the Navy because of it,” Lisa O’Keefe said. “But at the time, she was in high school and she heard about the Young Americans Foundation who were placing flags like these and so she organized it, raised money on her own to buy the flags, and got all of the kids in Speech and Debate to help out. We’ve done it every year as a family.”
Hayley also organized volunteers to help with flag placement, including members of the CHS football team, members of the CHS National Honor Society and secretaries from the Duneland School Corp.
Lisa O’Keefe said she remembers being affected by the event, but knows that the kids who place the flags have no memory of that day, so this is a way to make it current.
“I remember my husband and I sat out on our deck that night and watch the sky that had no planes in it,” she said. “It hit you body and soul. It changed the world. But I always wonder if kids today realize the impact.”
Hayley said she feels her classmates recognize the importance of the tragedy, as evidenced by the fact that they came to help, even in the rain, hours before school was to start, using car headlights for navigation in the darkness.
“They wanted to be a part of this,” she said, standing in front of a banner on the gate behind the flags that bore the words “Never Forget.”
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Seeing 2,977 American flags, each one bearing the name of a victim, is meaningful for Garritt Slatcoff, a senior who volunteered to be at school at 5:30 a.m. to help place flags.
“I feel it’s a good thing to do, to pay respect to those who lost their lives,” he said. “It was an awful tragedy.”
Heather Augustyn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.