Fayette County services set to mark terrorist attacks
Two memorial services in Fayette County on Saturday will serve as remembrances and mark the third anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Sylvan Heights Cemetery in North Union Township will host its annual service beginning at 4 p.m., while Brownsville-Luzerne Park will be the site for an annual service that gets under way at 8:45 a.m.
At Sylvan Heights, the names of victims who died in the terrorist attacks will be read beginning at 4 p.m. at the cemetery’s Sept. 11 monument.
Laurel Highlands High School graduate Lael Vojacek, who raised the money to build the monument, is on the list of scheduled speakers.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 47 band will begin playing at 5:30 p.m., about the same time a procession of fire trucks, ambulances, police and Rolling Thunder motorcycles from the Laurel Mall to the cemetery will begin.
The service will start at 6 p.m., when a recording of a speech President George W. Bush made after the attacks will be played.
Sylvan Heights general manager Ted Cisco, who organized the service, said he hopes the ceremony is held every year to remind people of the attacks.
“I hope people never forget. I know I never will. It was such a cowardly act. I hope nobody ever forgets.” Cisco said. “It’s a way to pay tribute to the ordinary people who paid the ultimate price.”
He said 300 to 400 people attended last year’s service.
Employees from Haky Funeral Home, Lafayette Memorial Park and Sylvan Heights are volunteering their time for the service.
Cisco said officials will light more than 1,100 candles all over the cemetery during the service.
Steve Haky of the Haky Funeral Home said a huge flag will hang from the ladders of two fire trucks.
The VFW band with Sally Loom will perform the national anthem, and Capt. Debra Stedman of the Salvation Army will lead the opening prayer.
Uniontown Mayor James Sileo and Fayette County Commission Chairman Angela Zimmerlink will address the audience.
In Luzerne Township, Paul Pressy, who retired earlier this year from a position at the Army Reserve Center in Hiller, is organizing the annual service in Brownsville-Luzerne Park.
The service, expected to last about an hour, will be held at the flagpole in the park.
“We started it because the first soldiers that were activated after 9-11 were from Erie. It started as part of their support group. We decided that every year at the time of the attack, around 8:45 a.m., we would have a prayer service,” Pressy said.
He said the service is simple, with an opening prayer this year by the Rev. Alexander Jalso, followed by prayers and remembrances for each of the groups that suffered losses in the Sept. 11 attacks and since.
“We do it as a tribute for the soldiers as well as for the lost firemen, EMTs, the civilians that were lost, the military lost at the Pentagon and for Flight 93 in Shanksville,” Pressy said.
All members of the public are invited to attend and to participate in the event, offering their own prayers, statements or poems to honor those who were killed. Pressy said that while local politicians such as Brownsville Mayor Norma Ryan are participating in the event, it is a memorial only.
“There’s nothing political about it,” Pressy said.
He said the number of people attending the event has grown each year, with 60 to 70 participating last year. He expects more than 100 this year.
Pressy is asking any military or emergency service personnel attending the service to wear their uniforms.
“We will face in the direction of New York and Shanksville while holding the ceremony,” Pressy said.
The ceremony will close with Taps and the Pledge of Allegiance.