The victims of a terror attack nine years ago and 2,800 miles away were recalled on Sept. 11, 2010 with the unveiling of a memorial bench on the greenbelt parkway near Hermosa Beach City Hall.
A gathering of more than 200 people, including U.S. Air Force personnel, airline pilots and flight attendants, Hermosa police and firefighters and city officials were on hand Saturday as a blue tarpaulin was lifted from the bench, which is festooned with 2,998 buttons representing each victim of the 9-11 terror attacks, along with flight attendant wings from American and United airlines, and badge pins from the New York police and fire departments.
“We will forever let this monument serve as a reminder of those who lost their lives,” Gabrielle Wolf, president of the Builders Club at Hermosa Valley School, told the gathering.
The Builders Club collected the buttons for the bench, writing to celebrities and politicians among others. Major roles in the bench program were also played by Hermosa Kiwanis, who sponsor the Builders Club, and the Hermosa Beach Police Department’s chaplain program.
Chaplain Gila Katz addressed the gathering and described Sept. 11, 2001 as “the day America lost its innocence.” As a Red Cross chaplain, she served for three weeks at the attacks’ Ground Zero.
“We are a city that honors our heroes,” she said.
Mayor Michael DiVirgilio, whose wife Danay had worked with the airlines until shortly before 9-11, spoke of the tragic nature of the terror attacks.
U.S. Air Force Col. Charles Helwig, based at the Los Angeles Air Force Base and commander of the Satellite Control and Network Systems Group, recalled the worldwide outpouring of sympathy that followed the attacks. Helwig was stationed in Belgium, where the locals stacked flowers outside the U.S. Embassy, and left them on the doorsteps of Americans’ homes.
Darren Shiroma, president of the flight attendants’ union at LAX, recalled that two of the airliners targeted by the terrorists had been bound for Los Angeles. Shiroma honored the fallen pilots, passengers and flight attendants, who he called “the first responders in the sky.”
United Airlines flight attendant Liz Nash sang “Stand by Me” as she strummed softly on a guitar. ER
