This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Regina Park.
GW students and faculty gathered in Kogan Plaza at 8:30 a.m. on Friday to commemorate Sept. 11 with a somber wreath-laying ceremony.
With a nearby American flag at half-mast and the lawn in Kogan Plaza speckled with American flags, University President Steven Knapp stressed the importance of the annual ceremony.
“It’s important that we pause and come together every year to remember not only what happened to our country, but also the way in which our university and community pulled together around that event and continues to do so to this day,” Knapp said.
Officials at the ceremony also took time to remember the nine GW alumni who were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A plaque remains in Anniversary Park to honor their memories.
Millicent Scarlett, an adjunct professor of music, sang the national anthem before Student Association President Andie Dowd read aloud the names, graduation dates and respective schools of the alumni that died.
“Our University bore witness to this moment in history and we will never forget,” Dowd said.
The crowd observed a University-wide moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the same time that Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center.
Vice President of Development and Alumni Relations Aristide Collins and Vice Admiral Mel Williams joined Knapp and Dowd to lay the wreath.
The ceremony closed with a rendition of Taps by a single trumpet.