Event To Remember Sept. 11th, Salute Newtown Area's First Responders

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The community is invited to a special 9-11 Remembrance and First Responder Appreciation Event on Friday evening, Sept. 9 at Newtown’s Pickering Field.

The event will recognize local first responders and remember those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2011. Local fire and police chiefs have been invited to speak during the observance, which begins at 6 p.m.

“The idea is just to stop and pause and pump the brakes a little from the world while we remember the first responders who ran into the towers 21 years ago and our own first responders who serve our community every day,” said Mayor John Burke, who is organizing the special night with the assistance of the Newtown Rotary Club.

The community’s first responders, including the Newtown Ambulance Squad, the Newtown Township and Newtown Borough police departments and the Newtown Fire And Emergency Services have been invited to attend.

“Believe it or not it’s been 21 years since that horrible day,” said Burke of the terrorist attack on America that killed 2977 people, including 265 on four hijacked planes, 2,753 at the World Trade Center in New York, 40 aboard Flight 93 in western Pennsylvania and 184 at the Pentagon in
Washington, D.C.

Of the 2,977 victims killed, 415 were emergency workers in New York City who responded to the World Trade Center, including 343 firefighters from the New York City Fire Department; 37 police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department; 23 police officers from the New York City Police Department; eight emergency medical technicians; and one New York Fire Patrolman. Also killed were three New York State Court officers and one special agent from the FBI.

The special evening will include welcoming remarks, reading of the names of the Bucks Countians who died on Sept. 11th and recognition of the first responders.

“It’s going to be real simple. It’s just about bringing the community together, saying thank you to our first responders and giving everyone a sense of peace and an opportunity to gather together,” said Burke. “It’s a remembrance. Come absorb the peacefulness and then go back into the community and keep that mindset alive.”

The evening will also include the presentation of a check by Burke and District Judge Mick Petrucci to the Newtown area Shop With A Cop program.

The money was raised by the sale of luminary kits, which Burke hopes will light the streets of the borough following the ceremony.

“If everyone lights their luminaries prior to going to the remembrance it will be dark when everyone goes home and the hope is all the luminaries will be lighting their way home,” said Burke. “It will be nice and peaceful and kind of ground people with everything going on in the
world.”

Luminary kits are still available for purchase at the Newtown Hardware House for $20 each. The kits include 10 candles, bags, candles and sand.

Burke, who is originally from Long Island, said he was strongly motivated to organize the event by his own personnel connections to Sept. 11, 2001.

Twenty-one years ago, Burke was in New York City when the unthinkable happened.

While he was doing a preceptorship at Mount Sinai Hospital in uptown, two jets were hijacked and flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in the lower end of Manhattan.

“I came out of the elevator (at Mount Sinai) and it was complete chaos at 9:15 in the morning” just moments after the planes struck the towers, he said. “People were running around. And we didn’t know what was happening.”

Burke and his crew had to walk 40 blocks back to their hotel in Midtown. “The trains were stopped and you couldn’t get on anything.

“As we walked all you could see is the billowing black smoke coming out of the towers,” said Burke. “It was very scary. It was very surreal. And we were freaking out. There were jets flying over. We didn’t know what was next,” he said.

“There was no communication. Cell phones weren’t working. It was complete chaos,” he said.

Burke ended up being struck in the city for the next two days. “All we had was the TV and alcohol,” he said.

Burke’s father, “Jack,” had also helped build the towers in the early 70s as a New York City iron worker with Local 580, which adds another layer to his personal connection to that day.

And one of Burke’s friends, a former iron worker who became a New York City firefighter, also lost his life on September 11th, 2001 in the collapse of the towers.

“I’d like everyone to take a brief moment this year to remember all those people who ran into the buildings as others were running out,” said Burke.

“It takes a special person to take an oath to serve and protect someone else,” said Burke. "Whether you’re a doctor, a nurse, a firefighter, a police officer, you’re saying that someone else’s life is more important than yours and even though I don’t know you I’m going to help you. That’s a special person.

“I know at Christmastime everyone lights up their streets (with luminaries) and it looks beautiful,” said Burke. “So I’m hoping September 11th will be another beautiful evening in the community and everything will be lit up. It’s for a good cause and we can remember those who gave their lives and celebrate those who protect and serve.”