Cape recognizes, honors victims of Sept. 11 with community memorial
A 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony was held on the lawn outside of City Hall on Friday morning.
Cape Coral Police Chief Anthony Sizemore, Cape Fire Chief Mike Russell and Cape City Council member Bill Steinke led the city’s commemoration for the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. First responders, agency leaders and community members came together to honor the 2,977 lives lost on Sept. 11.
Throughout the United States, most individuals who were toddler-age or older remember where they were — and what they were doing — when the first plane struck Trade Tower One in New York.
“I was home in Jersey,” Bernie Lefebvre said. “My wife was an accounting coordinator for the toll roads. She called me to say one of the World Trade towers had been struck. I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower. I could see the smoke from our house.”
Lefebvre was a facilities coordinator for a New Jersey hospital at the time. Following the attacks, he was immediately called in to work.
“It was all hands-on deck. Everyone who worked at the hospital was called in and we prepared for a rescue,” Lefebvre said. “By midday, the rescue was renamed a recovery. No one was coming in to be saved. It was surreal.”
His wife, Erin Lefebvre, added, “I remember the attacks on the World Trade Towers like they happened yesterday.”
The catastrophic event marked a tragic day for America: 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers died — first responders trained to run toward danger at any cost.
“Bless all those who still carry the wounds of that day,” Fire Chaplain Dennis Gingerich told the crowd.
Addressing attendees on behalf of the mayor’s office and city council, Steinke described the opportunity to speak at the commemoration as “by far the greatest honor ever bestowed on me.”
“We saw ordinary citizens moving toward danger,” he said. “They ran into the smoke.”
Steinke noted that in the quarter of a century since the attacks on New York City, more than 9,000 survivors have died from toxins that they were exposed to.
“Some are still dying from the aftermath of 9/11 today,” he said.
Sizemore explained he would like to see America return to the same spirit and camaraderie that its citizens showed on Sept. 12, 2001.
“9/12,” he said, “is a day I want to remember. It was, perhaps, the greatest show of unity we’ve had (as a country) since Pearl Harbor.”
His message of hope was echoed by Russell.
“I choose to recall the days after 9/11,” he said. “We were simply Americans, standing shoulder to shoulder.”
Russell added that unity is the message from Sept. 11.
Also during the ceremony, students from Oasis High School provided music and poetry readings in recognition of 9/11. The commemoration was followed by a “flag planting” in front of City Hall.
Attendees had the chance to collect small American flags and “plant” them in the outside lawn. Each flag bore the name of an individual whose life was lost to the attacks that took place on Sept. 11.
Melisa Rodriguez carefully planted a handful of flags, one by one, as she kneeled in the grass.
“My father was on the Elizabeth, New Jersey, fire department at the time of the attacks. He is still experiencing 9/11 related illnesses,” she said. “My dad is Phillip Morris. He lives right here in Cape Coral now, and I feel like placing these flags as a memorial is important.”
Russell closed the ceremony with an invitation for the community to, “Remember the lives lost, and the unity that rose from the ashes of that day.”