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David Nicholas: Nearly all the students at Northwood University in Midland are too young to remember the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That's why the university held an interactive memorial service today to help students better understand tragic events and remember the people who were killed 25 years ago. WCMU’s A-J Jones takes us there.
AJ Jones: A reverent silence is filling the air as people walked around the track at Hantz Stadium. Their silent walk honored the memory of the over 2,000 people killed on September 11, 2001, as well as many lives lost after as a result of the attacks. Laura Rhodes is with Northwood University and one of the event’s organizers. She says this is a yearly tradition, and the students are very involved in organizing the remembrance.
Laura Rhodes: We're really trying to bring it more of a reality to them, not just something they've learned through a textbook, and it's been great to see all the students lean in, be curious, ask questions.
AJ: On the practice field next to the stadium, 2,977 individual small blue and white pinwheels were put in the ground to honor those who were killed on September 11th. In addition, a large American flag on a crane hanging over a collection of smaller flags memorialized those who died at the Pentagon. Andy Cripe is the Dean of Student Affairs at Northwood University. He says this was also a project students had a hand in.
Andy Cripe: That took six different athletic teams. So, we had more than 200 student-athletes over the week coming out here helping us because each one of those pinwheels, we had to drill holes into the ground to put them in.
AJ: Inside the stadium, members of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity are walking up and down the steps of the stadium. They’re doing it to denote the steps taken by first responders who ascended up the Twin Towers after they were hit. Nathan McGuire is the Kappa Sigma president on campus. He says it’s a yearly tradition for the fraternity.
Nathan McGuire: They climbed 110 floors, which comes out to about 2,200 steps individually. So we do 73 laps here to match what they did.
AJ: He says the stair climb helps put the day in perspective.
NM: What we do is, of course, not equivalent to what the first responders did, because they were in full gear, under high stress, but we want to do the best we can to recognize what they did.
AJ: Located on the other side of the track was a group sitting next to a cannon. The cannon went off to mark the significant events on 9/11. Brad Blanchard is the executive director of the Great Lakes Bay Area Veterans Coalition. He fired the cannon off. At 9:03 A.M., the cannon went off to mark the moment United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower. Shortly after, a professor at Northwood, Dave Marsh, brought his class over to the cannon. Instead of holding a normal class that day… his students listened to him, and Blanchard discuss the events of 9/11. Blanchard talked about United Airlines Flight 93, passengers on that day revolted against four hijackers, taking back control of the plane. The plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone aboard.
Brad Blanchard: 2,977 people died that day. That would have been way over 3,000 if they hadn't done that, so they gave themselves up. For the sake of all these other people, unknown people that they didn't even know about.
AJ: Professor Marsh has been with Northwood University for 29 years. He was the athletic director but now teaches sports management. He said the memorial was more significant than anything he had planned to teach that day.
Dave Marsh: The intent of the terrorists was to bring us down. But instead, what it did was rally us together as we were all Americans, not Republican, Democrat or whatever. So, it had a real unifying effect.
AJ: As the event winded down, a final cannon went off to memorialize the collapse of the North Tower at 10:28 A.M. The event ended with a color guard and a performance of the bugle call Taps played out. The students at Northwood are mostly too young to remember 9/11. Still, Kappa Sigma fraternity president Nathan McGuire says the remembrance helps him grasp what that day was like.
NM: What they're doing just around campus to recognize the loss that we had. It really puts it into perspective of what the event was, even for us who didn't experience it firsthand. It's important to keep it top of mind.
AJ: Northwood will hold a ceremony for veterans and first responders tomorrow during their football game against Saginaw Valley State University. In Midland, I’m AJ Jones, WCMU News.
