Hundreds of people attended 9/11 memorials held in Libertyville and Mundelein Saturday morning, as themes of the day centered around honoring those who both survived and lost their lives Sept. 11, 2001.
A remembrance was at Cook Park in Libertyville and included a keynote speaker, a bell ceremony, and a silent parade to honor victims and first responders from the day.
A smaller 9/11 ceremony was held in Mundelein as part of the opening of the annual art festival at Kracklauer Park.
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The ceremonies in both towns were held the day the nation commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which included hijacked planes crashing — minutes apart — into the top of the twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and into a field 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. The the iconic buildings in New York, which each had more than 90 floors, fully collapsed moments after being struck.
After the parade in Libertyville Saturday, which ran along Milwaukee Avenue from the Libertyville train station to Cook Park, Mayor Donna Johnson gave opening remarks. She was followed by keynote speaker Capt. Jason Williamson, the commanding officer of the Naval Station Great Lakes.
In her remarks, Johnson called attention to the first responders who rescued people from the twin towers ruble on 9/11, and those who died in their attempt. She also mentioned the survivors who are suffering from health issues as a direct result of 9/11. She ended her remarks calling for a moment of silence.
“Let’s take a moment of silence to pray for the souls of victims who remain unidentified today,” she said. “For the families and loved ones of first responders left behind. The departed, who made the ultimate sacrifice and the survivors living with the memories of that day … that will never leave them when they wake or go to bed at night.”
Williamson, in his speech, recounted the sequence of events on 9/11, walking the crowd through the exact times that the attacks happened that day. He talked about how when the first plane flew into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time, many thought it was an accident. But soon it was clear that it was an attack after the second tower was hit, he said.
Next, another plane crashed into the Pentagon, which is a place Williamson said he’s worked at twice during his career.
The fourth plane, believed to have been aimed at Washington D.C. as well, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers were able to get control of the aircraft from the hijackers.
Williamson said 9/11 had a unifying effect that directed the nation toward a common goal. More than five million people opted to join the military after 9/11, he said.
“Many of us will never forget that 102 minutes in our history,” Williamson said. “And we are here today so we never forget the courage and the compassion of the men and women who raced into burning buildings to save lives, and those heroes who died on that Pennsylvania field.”
Following the speeches, officials rang a bell to honor those affected by 9/11. Libertyville fire Chief Rich Carani, who was a main organizer of the ceremony, said the bells represent both the start and end of a tour of duty for firefighters. Each new emergency is sounded by a bell, and the bell is rung three times when the emergency is over, he explained.
There was also a rendition of “Amazing Grace,” as well as a gun salute, and pipes and drums by the Midlothian Pipe Band to close the event.
Igor Vilk, 35, of Vernon Hills, is a pilot who was invited to help honor the pilots, flight attendants and passengers who lost their lives on 9/11. He said he wanted to help remind people that they were involved in the tragedy as well.
“These people were good people who were hardworking, and all they did was show up to work that day,” he said.
Igor’s wife, Tatyana, 36, and their two children, were also in attendance. Tatyana Vilk said she was in high school in Brooklyn when 9/11 happened. She said while she didn’t see the towers fall, she knew several people who were affected by the attacks.
” (The memory) is still just as fresh as it was that day,” she said. “It still hurts just as much.”
In Mundelein, dozens of people gathered in Kracklauer Park, where Mayor Steve Lentz and state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, gave remarks in remembrance of 9/11 before cutting the ribbon to open this year’s art festival.
With Mundelein first responders standing behind him as he spoke, Lentz compared 9/11 to the attack on Pearl Harbor, saying it was an event that everyone remembers where they were when it happened. Lentz said he was at work Sept. 11, 2001. At first, there were rumors that something was happening. But it wasn’t until the financial markets shut down that he gravitated toward the television to see what was happening.
“I went home, watched it on TV and we prayed as a family,” he said. “And I hadn’t prayed with our family as much as I did that day.”
Johnson said when the 9/11 attacks happened, she remembers huddling around a small, black-and-white TV at her office to see the news. She described the effect 9/11 had on the nation, noting the way it unified people. However, after a while, she said there was a search for blame. She ended by calling for a moment of silence.
“Twenty years later, our nation is still recovering from the pain and sorrow of that day,” she said. “It’s important, though, that we make sure our own healing doesn’t come at our neighbor’s expense.”
In Libertyville, Mayor Johnson said she hopes the ceremony there will remind the public of how great police and firefighters are. This point rings home for her personally, as her father was a firefighter.
“We’re not just commemorating the souls … of those who were lost during 9/11, but we also want to highlight all the great things our responders do,” she said. “We expect the public to step up and start supporting them in a good way.”
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