Mars Area 9/11 memorial reminds nation to ‘band together’
ADAMS TWP — Volunteers from the Pine-Richland/Mars Area U.S. Air Force JROTC set to work Thursday, Sept. 7, assembling an annual 9/11 memorial outside Mars Area High School.
According to Erin Kemp, a junior in the program at Pine-Richland High School, the memorial commemorates the unity of the American people on Sept. 11, 2001.
“On that day our nation grew stronger, and we grew together,” she said. “We were kind of able to find that in an act of tragedy we were able to band together.”
Chief Mike Gasparetto, an instructor for the program, said the group took over the tradition in 2017.
“We’re planting — and we try to do it very strategically, with straight lines — 2,977 American flags to represent everyone who was killed in the terrorist attacks,” Gasparetto said.
The flags represent casualties in Shanksville borough, Somerset County; New York City; and at the Pentagon in northern Virginia.
“As history marches on, we tend to forget what they say about remembering your history: You’re doomed to repeat it,” Gasparetto said. “Well, we don’t want that to happen.”
Organizer Alexander Friedrich, a junior in the program at Pine-Richland, said he hoped the volunteers appreciated the scale of the tragedy as they planted each individual flag.
“Each flag is a person that we lost that day,” he said. “I hope they really connect to it, because when it happened, none of us were born yet.”
With this in mind, Mark Hagen, a sophomore in the program from Mars high school, said the volunteers held a certain reverence for each flag as they planted them.
“There’s definitely a level of care to it,” he said. “You want to make sure flags aren’t touching the ground; you don’t want to break any.”
Erin, also an organizer for the event, said volunteers began preparations Wednesday evening.
“We came out and we set up all the ropes that were needed and measured everything,” she said.
The 300-foot field of flags is separated into five rows, according to Erin, with flags carefully spaced 6 inches from one another.
“I think the volunteers that show up know the significance of what we’re doing,” Gasparetto said. “I think it’s a commitment that they feel — that they need to do something to really help remember.”
The 9/11 memorial will be visible to the public along Route 228 outside the high school through Monday, Sept. 11.
“Ultimately, we don’t want them to forget the folks that died,” Gasparetto said.
