9/11 Ceremony Planned in Norcross

The City of Norcross plans to come together on Sept. 11 in remembrance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Welcome Center Coordinator Cate Kitchen is organizing the remembrance, which will include a bell ringing in the morning and a public ceremony is the afternoon.

In July, city resident Meryl Wilkerson spoke out at a Council meeting with an impassioned plea to the Mayor and Councilmembers to take responsibility for a ceremony. 

“It just struck me that for the last couple of years we have completed ignored it,” said Wilkerson in a later interview. “It was an attack on our country, an attack on our freedom. This should be as important as Pearl Harbor. Why have we forgotten?” she added.

Wilkerson served on the board that revamped Thrasher Park and remembers how the community came together around the issue of recreating the memorial plaques in the park. New markers were placed in a stonewall around the amphitheatre, with a service on Memorial Day that she remembers as very moving.

Wilkerson said she would be happy to see a similar feel at the 9/11 ceremony. This community is so close, she said, it is important to gather everyone together to have pause.

At 9 a.m., bells across Norcross will ring for three minutes in remembrance. Area churches, including Hopewell Missionary Baptist and Norcross First United Methodist, will sound their bells in unison with the historic bell in Betty Mauldin Park, according to Kitchen.

At 2 p.m., a ceremony will take place around the flagpole in downtown Norcross, Kitchen said. Bishop Shields from Hopewell will give an invocation and Chanda Walls will sing a song of remembrance.

The Norcross High School brass ensemble will play some patriotic songs and the NHS color guard will do an uncasing of the colors formation. Mayor Bucky Johnson will also say some words to the community.