Monroe to host virtual 9/11 Memorial Remembrance Service

Dear Neighbors and Friends,

I hope this note finds everyone well; the school year is beginning for many, and our lives are continuing to move forward. As we make our way through this pandemic, I want everyone to know that this year’s 9/11 Memorial Remembrance Service will take place, as it always should.

However, the event will occur in a different way. This year our event will take place on Friday, Sept. 11, beginning at 6 p.m.

This year, our 9/11 Memorial Remembrance Service will be similar to the Memorial Day Service this past May 2020, where we filmed all the event locations utilizing video, music and our veteran groups in a restricted group size here in Monroe and Harriman.

Due to the continued Executive Orders we have received over these past months since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the social and personal responsibility requirements and for the safety of all involved in the community to be as safe as possible, I have made the decision to have this years’ service at the 9/11 Memorial be a virtual event. This will include a live Facebook and a taped event that will be posted on all municipal websites, Facebook pages and Channel 22. There also will be a downloadable copy of the event.

The main goals for the Village are, first and foremost: To honor those from our community who passed that day.

We would also like to honor their families and their friends in this community who as well mourn and remember this tragic day.

To create a socially distant environment would detract from the sole purpose which is to honor and to remember those we knew and lost.

Our Interfaith Clergy group and our Monroe Police are completing the final details and we will be posting on all our platforms, including Constant Contact, Facebook and Town and Village websites. Please be assured that we will honor our community, its members and our way of life with the utmost respect and dignity.

As such, we have relocated the clergy and board members from the the Town of Monroe, the Village of Harriman and the Village of Monroe to come out from the bell tower area, respecting the bell tower as a solemn space and place the clergy in the back.

The video work will be done from the infield where the chairs are normally located. There will be no chairs or tent on the grass infield as in years past.

Our Mombasha Fire Department, Monroe Police Department as well as the Monroe Volunteer Ambulance Corps and its EMS corps will all be in attendance; however, they will be in a reduced formation of members, respecting social distancing for each other and the other participants.

The American flag will be raised by the Fire Department on Bridge Street. Almost all parts of our ceremony will take place so that we continue to honor them as they should be.

We hope that you will take the opportunity to view from work, at home with your family or on your phone, this event so that the 9/11 Memorial Remembrance event will be done safely, with the main focus placed on remembering those who have died on that tragic day and since that day.

Respectfully,

Mayor Neil Dwyer

Village of Monroe