Sept. 11 Remembrance In Brick Comforts Families Of Those Lost [VIDEO]

BRICK, NJ — Katie Jensen says it is her uncle's smile that stands out most in her memory.

"He was the glue that kept us together," Katie's brother, Mike said. Katie was turning 11 years old when terrorists flew two planes into the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, killing more than 2,600 people in New York alone. Katie was turning 11, Mike was 22 when their Uncle Jimmy — Jim Sands Jr. — was killed in the attacks that day.

Jim Sands Jr. and seven others who died on Sept. 11, 2001 were remembered Sunday evening on the 15th anniversary of the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans on that clear, bright Tuesday.

"We renew our promise to never forget," Brick Township Mayor John Ducey said at the remembrance ceremony Sunday evening at Windward Beach Park, where the eight residents of Brick who died in the attacks were honored for the 15th straight year. Residents ringed the road that encircles the Angel in Anguish statue, made by artist Brian Hanlon, that sits in the park.

The service included prayers and remarks offered by clergy from throughout the town, the signing of the national anthem, and the reading of the names of each Brick Township resident who died, with a fire company bell run for each name: John Badagliacca; Brett T. Bailey; Robert P. Devitt Jr.; Michael D. Diehl; Jon A. Perconti; Jim Sands Jr.; Thomas Sgroi; and Christopher M. Traina.

Then residents, ranging from older adults to young Cub and Tiger Scouts, placed LED candles at the base of the statue in memory and support.

Katie Jensen said the family had been through tragedy before; a cousin had died during training at the police academy, she said. It was Sands who helped the family navigate the grief, she said.

When Sands, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee who worked on the 103rd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, died on Sept. 11th, the family had to figure out how to get through that grief without him, she said. The remembrance ceremonies every year help, Katie and Mike Jensen said.

"Coming to these is uplifting more than devastating," Mike Jensen said.

"It's humbling to see so many people come out and support the families," said Melissa Jensen, Mike's wife.

Katie Jensen said family members had attended the ceremony in New York City for the first nine years after Sands' death, until it became too much for Katie's mother, who is Sands' sister, and her grandmother.

"We went back to New York last year after they completed the memorial. Seeing his name engraved there was hard," she said, but added that the memorial is beautiful. It was a different feeling than it had been previously. "Before it was just a hole in the ground."

The Jensens said the ceremony is important because the younger generations coming up with only know Sept. 11 the way those who are adults know understood Pearl Harbor — through books and writings and history lessons taught by the older generations.

"It's important that they not only understand the fear, but that they see the faith that shown through," Melissa Jensen said, "even for those who didn't have a specific faith. People were faithful to each other."

That is what they see in the turnout of residents who come to the service each year.

"To see the number of people who come to show support for people they don't even know, it's overwhelming," Katie said.

See more photos of the event here.

See video of the reading of the names here:

Katie Jensen runs her fingers across the name of her uncle, Jim Sands Jr., after placing a flower at the base of the Angel in Anguish statue at Windward Beach Park Sunday evening. Karen Wall photo