Moving Ceremony Marking 20 Years Since 9/11 Planned On North Fork

SOUTHOLD, NY — A memorial ceremony to mark the 20 years that have passed since 9/11 will take place on the North Fork Saturday, featuring a moving tribute — and featuring a Girl Scout who devoted an entire year to interviewing those whose lives were changed forever on the day the twin towers fell, documenting their stories for posterity.

"We couldn’t have expected while planning a year ago just how poignant her documentary would be," said Tracey Orlando, who heads up the Southold Town 9/11 memorial committee. "This year's program is about the next generation and we will have participation from all high schools on the North Fork."

The ceremony will include Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, students from local high schools, and members of the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, she said.

The memorial event will take place on Saturday, September 11, at Jean Cochran Park, located on Peconic Lane in Peconic. Participants are invited to arrive at 9:15 a.m. at the Southold Town Recreation Center, located at 970 Peconic Lane in Peconic, then join in a walk to the park.

At 9:30 a.m., the silent vigil will begin; at 9:50 a.m., participants will arrive at the park and, at 9:59 a.m., the memorial service will begin, concluding at 10:30 a.m. At 11 a.m., a screening of "Ripples: 9/11 Reflections From the North Fork, NY," the documentary created by Girl Scout Ellie Alloway, 16, a senior at Southold High School, will be shown at the Southold Town Recreation Center on Peconic Lane.

A total of 2,977 flags will be available, as they have been in past years, to place in solemn memory to the lives lost on 9/11, Orlando said.

"They represent all the souls we lost on that day. Participants are encouraged to find peace and comfort in the park," she said.

Orlando said the planning for the 20-year memorial event began two years ago when Ellie Alloway asked her to serve as her mentor for her Girl Scout gold award — and the idea for a documentary was born. "There is even more of a need to educate the younger generations on 9/11," Orlando said.

This year's event will be imbued with symbolism, including the ringing of 20 bells at the time each building fell, Orlando said.

In addition, wreaths will be laid not just for all those who died on 9/11, but also, for those who have died since due to 9/11-related illnesses, Orlando said.

"We decided to add 13 red flowers to represent the 13 who were killed in Afghanistan and 20 blue flowers for the 20 years," she said.

Worn over time, the 2,977 flags needed to be replaced, as they are every five years, Orlando said, thanking the Mattituck Lions Club, Southold PBA, the Haugland Group, Kelly J. Fogarty CPA, and a donor who wishes to be anonymous for opening their hearts to help.

"This year's event will be a beautiful ceremony filled with our community members and love," Orlando said. The Southold Town 9/11 Committee is a "committee of the community" and welcomes anyone who wants to participate in the planning to join their efforts, she said.

Last year, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said James Miller, who died in June, 2021, deserved thanks for donating the sculpture of the osprey that stands tall in tribute to the nation's heroes in Cochran Park.

"The sculpture will serve as a reminder to future generations of the horror and the heroism that we saw on that fateful day," Russell said.

Miller purchased the sculpture and donated it to Southold Town in honor of those who lost their lives on 9/11, Russell said. Next, the Southold Town Fire Chiefs Council, with the cooperation of the Town of Southold, built the Volunteer Firefighter's Memorial, which encircles the 9/11 memorial.

The memorial is constructed of beams originally used to build the 33rd floor of the World Trade Center, and features the wire osprey sculpture, originally created by artist Roberto Julio Bessin, sitting atop the beams, according to the Southold Fire Department.

The memorial consists of a sitting wall interspersed with columns identifying each Southold Town Fire Department; the names of the firefighters who lost their lives are engraved on a plaque.

In addition, a public area between the 9/11 memorial and the sitting wall, "Hero's Plaza", is finished with brick pavers, honoring the citizen volunteers who died in service to the Southold community, Russell said.

In 2011, the welded bronze sculpture of the osprey, which originally was sited at the end of the docks in Greenport, took flight to its new home in Peconic.

Miller, of Calverton's Miller Environmental Group, was part of the team that created the memorial. He said his company was one of the contractors involved with remediation at Ground Zero and was able to acquire some of the fallen columns.

"I think Cochran Park is an outstanding location," Miller said in 2011. "It will get the visibility and respect it deserves there. When people see the twisted, distorted configuration of the metal, it's really overwhelming to think of the forces involved to do that."

The work of art, titled "Morning Call," depicts a perching osprey on top of a beam which fell from the 33th floor one of of the World Trade Center towers.

A Girl Scout pays tribute

Ellie Alloway, a Girl Scout from Troop 94 in Southold who wasn't even born yet on 9/11, spent a year gathering first-person accounts of 9/11 for her Girl Scout Gold Award Project.

"Ellie has participated in the Southold Town's 9/11 Memorial since she was a very young girl, helping the town committee to hand out the 2,977 flags; that is our tradition," Nicole Alloway, leader of Troop 94 and Ellie's mother, said. "Plus, she has heard stories about 9/11 all her life: her uncle had to walk out of downtown Manhattan to Brooklyn that day."

Ellie's mother's college friend was killed, as was her uncle's first girlfriend.

For her project, Ellie recorded record first-person accounts of 9/11 so the haunting stories of that day told by those who witnessed the horrors firsthand will be remembered for generations to come.

The documentary is the centerpiece of Ellie's Girl Scouts USA Gold Award project, the highest national award available to Girl Scouts.

She has also created a website that documents the history of the town's memorial at Jean Cochran Park, "Morning Call," as well as a place for her documentary to be viewed after the premiere. She hopes to add a feature to the website that will allow local citizens to upload their own experiences onto the website, similar to the recording booth that exists at the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York.

Her documentary will also be shown to students of Southold, Greenport and Mattituck High Schools on Friday in the schools' respective social studies classes. All are invited to attend the official premiere on September 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southold Town Recreation Center on Peconic Lane.

The encore presentation of the documentary will be shown on September 11, also at the rec center, at 11 a.m. immediately at the end of the 9/11 memorial service at Jean Cochran Park.