Second Alarmers Plan 9/11 Memorial Dedication

Second Alamers Rescue Squad will dedicate the 9/11 memorial on Sept. 11 at 1 p.m. at the Whitpain Township Building and future site of the new Whitpain Second Alarmers Station.

The memorial will feature the 12.5 foot piece of World Trade Center Steel and a 20-foot flagpole. In the future, there will also be a garden and benches at the memorial site.

The ceremony will begin with local emergency medical services workers marching in with Centre Square Fire Company and Whitpain Police Department leading the way with an honor guard. Centre Square Firefighters and Whitpain Police Officers have come together to work on an honor guard in honor of this special occasion in the Township.

Prior to the dedication, the Blue Mass will be held at , from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. This annual mass is held every year on 9/11 to honor fallen police, fire and EMS workers. Following the mass, Monsignor Nicolo invited the entire congregation to join St. Helena’s at the Township Building to dedicate the 9/11 memorial.

SARS has invited all of the clergy from the township to come and be a part of the ceremony and after blessing the steel, there will be a moment of silence for the people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks as well as John Kulick, a Whitpain Township career firefighter, who enlisted in the National Guard Reserves after the 9/11 attacks and was killed in Iraq.

A ceremonial fire bell will be rung 10 times in honor of the past 10 years and the Sgt. At Arms, former Marine, Bill Gray of Upper Moreland, will drop a flower at the base of the memorial.

Jamie Haddon, Executive Director of SARS, said he wants people to come and give them time to reflect. “If they’re showing up ten years later, it meant something to them,” he said.