MOCO Remembers: County Honors The Lives Lost On 9/11

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — County Executive Marc Elrich was an elementary school teacher 20 years ago when he was called into his school’s library and saw the planes hit the Twin Towers on television. His first emotion was shock, but he next wondered how they would possibly explain this to the children.

He told his 9/11 story at the remembrance ceremony Friday morning that commemorates and honors the 11 lives of Montgomery County residents lost on that day.

“I’m sure everybody here remembers exactly where they were on that day,” said Elrich. “I’m sure everybody remembers how they found out about the attack.”

County Council members and other leaders said the names of the 11 victims and read a passage or quote selected by the victims’ families, before placing a flower on each of the benches dedicated to the residents in Courthouse Square Park in Rockville, where a permanent memorial is built.

The county’s chief administrative officer, Richard Madaleno, noted the eerie similarity he saw between the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and nearly 20 years later, when the ceremony was held. The clear blue sky reminded him of the day that killed nearly 3,000 people and permanently altered countless lives.

Madaleno pointed out a structure toward the opposite end of the park, columns with a bronze plaque that lists the names of all of the Montgomery County victims. A unique design on the roof, he said, is a solar lens that will capture the light on the morning of Sept. 11 and briefly illuminate each name in the park.

Madaleno and Rockville Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton both recalled the sense of national unity in the weeks after 9/11, the feeling that everyone was working toward the same thing.

“It’s up to all of us to honor those lost that day,” Madaleno said. “By doing everything that we can, and I mean everything that we can, to honor them by remembering that unity.”

Photos from Montgomery County’s 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony: