Glen Arbor commemorates September 11 attacks
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
More than 200 patriotic Americans, local townspeople and students from two high schools attended an emotionally stirring September 11 Memorial Service at the Glen Lake Fire Department this morning — an annual event in Glen Arbor to remember the fallen, to honor those that serve in uniform and risk their lives for our communities and our nation, and as a reminder that evil still exists today in a dangerous world.
Watch our video of the service:
The 70-minute ceremony featured the Glen Lake School Choir singing the “Star Spangled Banner”, “God Bless America” and “A Prayer for Tomorrow”; bagpipers playing “Amazing Grace”, as is traditionally done at New York City funerals for fallen police and firemen, and the “Taps” farewell salute, by Norm Wheeler and William Brodin. At 8:43 a.m., the moment when the first hijacked airplane hit the Twin Towers 12 years ago, the fire station bells sounded their mournful chimes, followed by one minute of silence.
Glen Lake Fire Chief John Dodson officiated the service, which also featured remarks by Glen Lake Community Reformed Church Reverend Andy Bossardet, and a history lesson from Major General Mike Lehnert, who lives in nearby Elk Rapids and is a veteran of military campaigns in Panama, Kuwait and Iraq. Paying homage to local families who serve, Lehnert recalled driving by a house on M-72 this morning that boasts three Marine flags — one for every son in uniform. (Read our 2009 story about the Castle family, whose sons Kevin, Keith and Kyle and all in the Marine Corps.) Acknowledging that soldiers are often honored for their service, while firemen receive little credit for their sacrifice, Lehnert concluded his remarks by turning and saluting the Glen Lake firemen.
Glen Arbor resident Ted Peterson designed the memorial which sits in front of the Fire Department and features a beam that was salvaged from the wreckage at Ground Zero standing over a reflecting pool. Peterson spoke about his inspiration for “making complex art out of simple topics”, but in this case “making simple art out of complex topics”. The beam came from the Twin Towers wreckage and arrived in Glen Arbor last year.
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, and Leelanau County resident Taro Yamasaki (read our 2012 feature about Yamasaki’s work), whose father helped design the Twin Towers in Manhattan, also created an emotionally moving video (together with Julie Weeks) about the families of firemen lost in the terrorist attacks. Watch the slideshow below:
Finally, the memorial service featured sobering photos of the smoking wreckage at Ground Zero in the days after the terrorist attack. Anthony Miller, an Native American ironworker from nearby Peshawbestown, traveled to New York immediately after learning of the tragedy and spent 40 days there aiding the dangerous cleanup effort in the still smoldering wreckage.
“We’d cut iron, the big stuff, and trim it down to a size that it could be loaded on a truck and hauled away,” Miller told the Leelanau Enterprise. “The air was thick. The wreckage burned for weeks.”
