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General News: 9-11 Remembered in Cornwall Ten Years Later
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| Cornwall residents, young and old, gathered for the 10th anniversary of 9-11. |
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| County legislator Kevin Hines spoke of finding hope amid the tragic memories. |
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| Cornwall's emergency responders prepared to lay wreaths at the memorial. |
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| Elsa Cameron played "America" on the hand bells. |
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| Ann Marie Sumski sang the National Anthem. |
September 12, 2011
More than 200 Cornwall residents gathered in Chadeayne Circle on Sunday evening for their own remembrance of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, following a day of national observances of the attacks ten years ago.
The president of the Cornwall Historical Society, Bruce Bryan, opened the ceremony before handing it over to Master of Ceremony, Maryann Rose O’Dell. Following an invocation from Harriet Sandmeier of Cornwall Presbyterian Church, O’Dell read a dramatic description of the outpouring of human compassion in the hours and days after the attacks on the two World Trade Center buildings. Her source was a letter written by Stephanie Johnson of Washingtonville, who was one of the volunteers who helped serve 20,000 hot meals to the rescuers in the immediate aftermath. She described the diverse group of volunteers, from a District Attorney to a Broadway actress, who joined her to cut 300 heads of lettuce and 250 pounds of cucumbers. “We became a community,” Johnson wrote, remembering how when she saw the destruction on the streets in lower Manhattan “I sobbed when I saw the reality of what man’s hate can cause.”
Town leaders also spoke at the ceremony at the monument erected in tribute to Cornwall area emergency responders in 2008. Looking out into the traffic circle where most people held American flags that had been distributed by members of Cub Scout Pack 6, Cornwall-on-Hudson Mayor Brendan Coyne recalled how he first learned of the attack while at work at Mount Saint Mary College. He noted that recollections of that day ten years ago has been seared into the public consciousness.
Cornwall Deputy Supervisor Mary Beth Greene Krafft also spoke, recounting how people in Cornwall first gathered at the traffic circle three days after September 11, 2001 to take part in shared grief. Helen Bunt was the town supervisor when the terrorist attack occurred and on Sunday before the ceremony began she remembered the impromptu gathering that day, when people filled the traffic circle with candlelights. “People needed to connect and to share all the feelings they were holding inside,” Bunt recalled.
Orange County Legislator Kevin Hines spoke of the loss of 44 citizens of Orange County who died on 9-11 but he also spoke of the need to heal. He recalled the riverfront ceremony held ten years ago when the John Harvey fireboat anchored in the Hudson, where it shot out arcs of water that created rainbows in the air. “I hope you have your own rainbow,” Hines told the crowd, “instead of a memory of a tragedy.”
After the laying of wreaths by local fire and police departments and the ambulance corps as the American Legion color guard looked on, Elsa Cameron played “America” on a set of handbells, stirring people’s emotions and providing a chance to reflect. Pastor Darlene Resling of the Mountainville Methodist Church read a passage from the Abrahamic Scriptires and Abbey Mayer performed “Taps” on the trumpet, followed by a benediction from the new pastor of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Stephen Holton. As the ceremony wrapped up, young Ann Marie Sumski sang the National Anthem and Grant Nunnally played “Amazing Grace” on the bagpipes before the crowd headed over to the Highland Engine Company headquarters for community and refreshments.
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