9/11 Remembered at a Ceremony in Duluth

Victims and first responders were honored at the program

DULUTH, Minn. – Everyone who was old enough to understand what was happening remembers where they were and what they were doing on 9/11.

Seventeen years later, the tragedy is far from forgotten.

“Our nation changed that day,” said Duluth Police Department Chaplain, Fr. John Petrich. “We now have a new normal and part of that new normal is that we’re more vigilant, that we’re coming together more as community and we don’t want to lose that.”

Dozens of people joined Duluth firefighters, police officers, St. Louis County Sheriff deputies, and American Legion members near Duluth’s Statue of Liberty Statue outside the DECC.

“Makes you appreciate everything a little bit more, that each day that we have is a gift and it’s not guaranteed and just to be extremely grateful for all the first responders and those people that were the helpers as Mr. Rogers calls them,” said Diana Kuenzli who attended the ceremony.

They gathered to honor the fallen from the historic terrorist attack to to thank the first responders who risked everything to help.

“It’s an amazing sense of pride that there are people who when everyone else runs away are the first ones to run in the opposite direction,” said Kuenzli.

Duluth Police Chaplain, Fr. John Petrich volunteered at ground zero weeks after the attack.

“Seventeen acres of land with a pile of rubble ninety–five feet high,” said Petrich.

He says the experience renewed his drive to help people.

“People have an amazing reserve,” said Petrich. “They can dig down deep into what they learned when they were younger, what they saw when they were younger and what they believe and it carries us forward.”

Many at the ceremony pointed to 9/11 as a day Americans came closer together.

They assembled today as a community, hoping to preserve that memory and lesson for generations to come.