Students Initiate an Impromptu 9/11 Remembrance

Whiz Kids: Tyler Andrus, 17; Tom Boland, 16

Whiz Kids’ School: Tyler Andrus is a senior and Tom Boland is a junior at

Whiz Kids’ Accomplishment: These guys started playing and singing the National Anthem in the school cafeteria as a tribute to the victims of 9/11.

Whiz Kids’ Key to Awesomeness: It was Friday, Sept. 9, and there were about ten or fifteen minutes left to the first lunch period. Andrus and Boland walked in. Andrus announced to the students and staff in the cafeteria that the upcoming weekend would mark the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11. He then invited them all to join in as Boland started playing his guitar and he started to sing the National Anthem.

“People really responded well,” said Andrus. “It was powerful. Students stood up, saluted and sang.”

“It made me feel pretty good,” said Boland of the positive response of the student body and staff.

The duo repeated their tribute at the two subsequent lunch periods as well.

A few weeks prior, Boland approached Andrus with his idea. Andrus is the founder and president of The Project Team, “a club that does things.” The club advocates for personal projects of students with ideas of wanting to do something but not sure how to do it, or how to secure all the necessary steps involved to do it.

“It was an honor to help Tom,” said Andrus. It took about a week of planning and approval to make it happen. “We wanted to ensure that it was done respectfully and modestly.”

Only two others knew about the plan other than Andrus and Boland; Principal Tom Mead and the band teacher from whom they borrowed an amplifier.

“We weren’t sure how it was going to go,” admitted Andrus.

Andrus has participated in musical theater and Boland has been playing guitar for about a year.

“I never felt that nervous before,” said Andrus.

The idea came to Boland while he was “watching a documentary on the Discovery channel about rebuilding ground zero. I thought we should do something to remember 9/11.”

Both boys debated on whether or not to do the remembrance on the Friday before or Monday after the weekend.

“We thought doing it on Friday would keep people thinking about the annivesrary heading into the weekend,” said Boland.

News about the event travelled quickly with a lot of Tweets and Facebook posts.

When students returned after the weekend, Andrus created a "Remembering 9/11" banner located near the front office. He left sticky notes and pens for students to write their own thoughts and feelings about 9/11, and those notes have created a wall of remembrance.

“It’s difficult to do something that isn’t necessary,” said Andrus. “No one would notice the difference if it wasn’t done, but we felt the need to do it.”