Several events have been planned in the Las Vegas valley in honor fo the victims of 9/11. They include:
SCHOOL EVENTS
Valley High School's JROTC program will be honoring those who died on 9/11 during an event on Wednesday morning at the high school. The event, which will begin at 6:30 a.m., is not open to the public.
Students at Palo Verde High School and Neal Elementary School will honor the victims of 9/11. Palo Verde High School Air Force's JROTC will hold its annual rededication ceremony in remembrance of the victims, including the school's foreign language teacher Barbara Edwards. Edwards was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. Neal STEM Academy will hold a special flag-raising ceremony, attended by all students and staff. The Cheyenne High School Army JROTC color guard, band and choir will be on hand for the special observance. All students will assemble and listen to a message from Principal Denise Murray, whose husband was a Port Authority Police Lieutenant who was previously stationed at the World Trade Center. Mrs. Murray and her husband lost 32 of their Port Authority Police friends on 9/11. The events are not open to the public.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
Las Vegas Fire & Rescue will continue its tradition of honoring those who died on 9/11 or because of 9/11 with a special ceremony on Sept. 11. The ceremony at Fire State 5 will including ringing of the bell at 6:50 a.m.
The ringing of the bell is a longtime tradition of the fire service known as the "tolling of the bells." Many years before radio communications existed in the fire service, communication was done via fire alarm boxes on street corners that were assigned a "box number" much like an address. Firefighters had to memorize the box numbers and their locations. When a person pulled a fire alarm, the signal would go to all the fire stations by wire and ring the bell in the stations. The bell would ring the number issued to that box and firefighters would respond. Fire dispatch would also have designated ringing of the bells to alert department members of certain events.
If a firefighter was killed in the line of duty, fire dispatch would ring the bell in sets of five, three times. This would let everyone on the department know that a firefighter had just lost his or her life in the line of duty. A retired New York City firefighter who was at the World Trade Center on 9/11 will sing the national anthem.
The public is invited to join firefighters at any of the city fire stations during the tribute on Tuesday morning.
DOWNTOWN EVENT
The annual 9/11 march in downtown Las Vegas will begin at 7 p.m. Sept. 11 at Main Street. The march will stop at 10 minutes at 1st Street and those marching and watching will observamce a moment of silence followed by the national anthem. Everyone will then observe the Fremont Street Experience 9/11 memorial show on their canopy. At 7:15 p.m., the march will continue to 3rd Street and then towards Ogden where firetrucks and a large flag will be on display. The march will end at Hog & Heifers.
