Massapequa Park Remembers 9/11

As the sun set on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, dozens gathered at Brady Park to remember those lost in Massapequa Park.

The annual candlelight vigil was brief and moving as a bagpiper led a color guard and members of the Massapequa Fire Department towards a podium to begin the ceremony.

Following a stirring rendition of the National Anthem by Randi Kopp and an invocation by Rev. Ken Zach of St. Rose of Lima, Massapequa Park Mayor James Altadonna addressed those in attendance.

His remarks focused on what's changed since 9/11 and what has remained the same.

"We are a changed people, but we have lived through a tragedy that shook our nation," he said.

"We will not be judged and we will not be memorialized by that day, but rather how that date has galvanized us as a people and as a country."

Family members and public officials then lit candles in memory of five people from the area who died in the terror attack. 

A sixth candle was lit in honor of all the victims.

Two local scouts were chosen to give readings. Boy Scout Jason Arnold read a poem about Sept. 11, while Girl Scout Alison Latini, 16, spoke movingly of how much she remembered about that day even though she was only 6-years-old.

Latini drew a picture of the World Trade Center that day saying she was a girl who "used up most of her crayons depicting the Twin Towers engulfed in smoke, unwittingly symbolic of America's darkest day."

"Over the next 10 years, that girl and all Americans learned many lessons," Latini said. "That good still prevails over evil, that hard work and determination prevails over momentous destruction and most important, that love never dies."

Among those who lit candles on Sunday was Barbara Hoerner, who lost her husband Ronald in the attck.

She was joined by several of her twelve grandchildren, several of whom weren't even born when Hoerner, who was in charge of security at the World Trade Center, lost his life.

Hoerner described the anniversary as "very difficult." "It's like reliving the whole day again," she said.

But she said she returns every year, "because we do a lot in the community and the community does a lot for us."