The City of Danville held a National Day of Service and Remembrance Ceremony on Monday morning at the Danville Life Saving Crew to honor the memory of the nearly 3,000 people that died during the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Danville Life Saving Crew Chief Robbie Woodall spoke about the responsibility of keeping the memory of the sacrifices that were made on that day alive.
“Being a little older I take for granted that a lot of people know what we’re doing this morning, but my son was only three years old when this happened and my daughter wasn’t even born. So I think it’s our responsibility and privilege to make sure that we educate the younger generation to understand the sacrifices that given that day and never forget what happened,” said Woodall.
Danville Mayor Alonzo Jones addressed the crowd and praised the bravery of first responders.
“First responders rushed into danger without a moment of hesitation and countless ordinary citizens stepped forward to help,” said Jones, “in the face of terror we stood together as one, demonstrating the strength of our nation when we come together. Today’s call to action serves as a reminder that we must honor the memory of those we lost on that day by working diligently to prevent such horrors from happening again.”
Del. Danny Marshall spoke about the heroic actions that occurred during 9/11.
“On that tragic day firefighters, law enforcement officers, medical responders, and others ran toward the areas of danger to rescue and save as many victims as possible. All of those responders are our heroes. More than 400 responders lost their lives that day. Some of the airplane travelers on flight 93 tried to over power the terrorists to take back control of the airplane. They were able to disrupt the flight and keep it from hitting it’s target, but the plane crashed. The actions saves the lives of those at the targeted building where more people would have died, those citizens are our heroes,” said Marshall.
The GW High School band performed the national anthem and the GW chorus sang “God Bless America” during the ceremony.