Reporting by Anthony Maenza, Hanover Evening Sun
With the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks approaching, volunteers helped the Exchange Club of Hanover prepare 3,000 U.S. flags that will be displayed on that day.
The group of volunteers unwrapped and attached the brand-new flags to poles on Saturday, Aug. 15, at the West Manheim Township building.
George Hubbard said the 3,000 flags will be displayed in a field at West Manheim Elementary School on Sept. 11.
Hubbard said a tag will be attached to each flag with the name of a person who died during the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center in New York, at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and those aboard United Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pa.
He said each will be color-coded to signify where each person died that day.
A history of observing the 9/11 anniversary
Bob Channell, co-chairman of the Exchange Club of Hanover’s Healing Field Project, said the club began displaying the field of flags in 2004. The club then started displaying the flags in 5-year increments to observe each milestone anniversary.
“I went to the National Exchange Club convention where this was introduced to us,” Channell said. “I said this is something we need to do in Hanover. We need to remember the people that died that day. It’s a somber remembrance of people whose lives ended much too soon.”
Channell said people need to reflect on that history.
“I think we need to remember what happened that day in 2001,” he said, “because if you don’t keep history in your hindsight, history has a way of repeating itself. We can’t let that happen again.”
This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun.
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