Local firefighters and police officers gathered in South Bend Friday morning to commemorate firefighters and police officers who died at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Due to the pandemic, this year’s ceremony looked a little different.
Masked officers, spaced six feet apart, surrounded the “Standing Tall” memorial in St. Patrick’s County Park Friday morning. In contrast to previous years, the public was not encouraged to attend the ceremony.
In a silent memorial, officers from several local departments rang a bell ten times - first three rings, then four, then three again - to commemorate the 343 firefighters lost in the 9/11 attacks. The bell rang an additional six times for the sixty police officers lost on that day as well.
A pre-recorded statement before the bell ceremony commemorated the two graduates of South Bend’s John Adams High School who died in the attacks: Katie McCloskey, who worked in the World Trade Center, and Kathy Hawk Nicosia, a flight attendant.
The South Bend Fire Department streamed the event live on its Facebook page. You can watch it here.
