EASTLAKE, Ohio — A small northeast Ohio community roughly 500 miles from Ground Zero is paying a special tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice on Sept. 11.
Dozens gathered Saturday at the America Remembers Memorial on the Boulevard of 500 Flags in Eastlake to recognize the 20th anniversary of the deadly day. The site includes pieces of the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; the three locations where thousands of Americans died during the terrorist attacks.
Ted Whittington said he’s known what he’s wanted to do with his life since he was three.
“I love being a firefighter,” he said. “But it’s something a little more special to serve the community in which you grew up.”
He’s lived his dream job for more than 20 years and knows there’s some sacrifice that comes along with it.
“We knowingly take on our jobs and know that each day we go out there, we have to serve our community,” he said. “We have to do it to a high level. There’s great expectations.”
Whittington is the chief of the Eastlake Fire Department.
He said he’s been called upon to serve in any capacity needed.
“So, we carried the flags into Madison Square Garden,” he said.
He participated in a memorial a year after the attacks honoring the 343 firefighters who lost their lives. Medals were presented to the families of the fallen.
“I think there’s an emotional tie because of what we do and an understanding of the sacrifices that were made,” he said. “So, it was very humbling.”
Now pieces from each of the three sites targeted in terrorist attacks are in Eastlake, including a part of a lamppost, granite and beams from the World Trade Center, a portion of the granite from the Pentagon building and a piece of grass from where flight 93 crashed in Shanksville.
Each item makes up the America Remembers Memorial and is a tribute to a day many will never forget.
“That’s maybe a little bit of our way to not only honor them but to maybe feel closer to them and maybe try to understand what they went through on that day,” Whittington said.
At the community’s memorial service, a narrator retold the events of 9/11 and a rifle squad provided a gun salute to the victims, in addition to other presentations.
