Metuchen will mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with a somber ceremony. It will also be the last one the borough holds.
The event, which has been spearheaded by Fire Chief Rob Donnan, will be a 30- minute ceremony at 7 p.m. Sept. 11 at Freedom Plaza, during which portions of Main Street and Woodbridge Avenue will be closed.
“We’re basically considering this the end of the 10-year mourning period,” Donnan said. “We hope that people remember it in their own way going forward from here.”
Mayor Thomas Vahalla will be making remarks, as will local clergy members and Helene Zahn, Metuchen Area Chamber of Commerce president, said Angela Sielski, executive assistant of the Chamber.
Donnan also will speak.
“I’m going to try to talk more about the day before 9/11 and where we were then. We can’t live in the shadows,” he said, adding that he and his fellow firefighters see the legacy of 9/11 every day in the form of enhanced rules and regulations. “We’re reminded of it constantly,” he said.
Metuchen firefighters, he said, were asked to go to a staging site in Staten Island, N.Y., to provide assistance on 9/11. “We could see everything off in the distance,” Donnan said.
Three hundred and forty-three firefighters died on that day.
“My main connection is the firefighters,” he said. “That number [343] is burned into every firefighter’s brain. The thing that I remember on a daily basis is 343.”
To remember the lost firefighters, Donnan and his fellow firefighters used to do their own ceremony, where they would read the 343 names. They were asked to join the borough event a few years ago.
In attendance will be police, fire and other emergency services personnel, as well as chamber members and Boy Scout Troop 66, Sielski added. The Scouts will lead the “Pledge of Allegiance” and the flag ceremony.
Sielski said the chamber is anticipating about 300 will gather for the event. For this year’s ceremony, attendees will be given a carnation to leave behind at the memorial. The ceremony will conclude with a bagpiper playing.
“We’re not trying to do something over the top,” Sielski said. “We just want to ease some people’s pain a little bit.”
According to Chamber information, Freedom Plaza, located at the Metuchen train station, houses a memorial and is intended to be a place for reflection, remembrance and affirmation. A Verdin clock serves as the centerpiece. The memorial contains the names of each of the 701 New Jersey residents who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or aboard the downed flight in western Pennsylvania. A special notation marks the names of Metuchen and Edison residents.
Donnan and Sielski pointed out that many who perished in New York that day were commuters who regularly passed through the Metuchen train station.
Attendees are welcome to bring an individual flower or American flag as tributes.
Donnan said his fear is that 9/11 will become forgotten the way he said Pearl Harbor is.
“EveryDec. 7, I look in the newspaper, and I don’t see anything about Pearl Harbor. This should never become Pearl Harbor,” he said.
Those looking for a different opportunity to gather and mourn may want to attend a service at the First Baptist Church of Metuchen at 6 p.m. Sept. 11 in the church’s sanctuary. The church will screen the hour-long documentary “The Cross and the Towers,” which will be followed by remarks by the Rev. James Miller, senior pastor.
“The title of his talk will be ‘A Message of Hope,’ ” said Suzanne Kalish, worship director.
The event is open to all. The church is located at 225 Middlesex Ave. For information, call Kalish at 732-548-4279.
For additional information on the Chamber sponsored event, contact the Chamber at 732-548-2964 or visit www.metuchenchamber.com.