CEDAR CITY — A crowded room was the scene during a 9/11 tribute in the Great Hall of the R. Haze Hunter Conference Center on Southern Utah University’s campus Thursday.
Hundreds gathered for a tribute honoring the events of that tragic day 13 years ago. The ceremony began with prelude music by the Interfaith Orchestra and a welcome by the university’s Community Engagement Center Director Earl Mulderink.
Following the welcome, the SUU ROTC presented the colors, North Elementary School fifth-graders sang the national anthem and student Sam Shakespear led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.
“Today, we join millions of Americans across the United States to help commemorate the Sept. 11th event that so transformed our nation and our world,” Mulderink said. “We are joining millions of Americans today in honoring what is now officially known as the Sept. 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance.”
In 2009, Congress designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service and Remembrance under bipartisan federal law and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service with helping support this effort across the country, Mulderink said.
SUU students took part in cleaning up the Thunderbird Gardens, a recreational area near Cedar Ridge Golf Course, as a part of the service day.
This day has become the country’s largest charitable day of community service, Mulderink said.
“We proudly join in these nationwide activities,” he said.
Mulderink gave tribute to the first responders in the room, as well as those who were absent, for their services to the people of the nation.
Poet Billy Collins gave a reading of “The Names,” a poem he wrote in remembrance of each victim of 9/11.
The tribute presentation closed with a rendition of taps, played on the bagpipes by SUU Post Office Manager Bruce Barclay.
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The audience at the 9/11 tribute on Southern Utah University's campus applauds the first responders in the room, Cedar City, Utah, Sept. 11, 2014 | Photo by Holly Coombs, St. George News
American Poet Billy Collins reads his poem, "The Names," as a tribute to the 9/11 victims, Cedar City, Utah, Sept. 11, 2014 | Photo by Holly Coombs, St. George News
SUU Postal Service Manager Bruce Barclay plays "Taps" on the bagpipes at the university's 9/11 tribute, Cedar City, Utah, Sept. 11, 2014 | Photo by Holly Coombs, St. George News
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