Riverdale remebers 9/11

All around town, people pay homage to lives lost

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While the eyes of the country were turned toward 9/11 memorial ceremonies in Manhattan and in Washington, D.C., Riverdale and Kingsbridge residents commemorated the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in their own ways.

Children planted trees, seniors marched and sang patriotic songs and Manhattan College students listened to the words of an alum, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
On Sunday 8:46 a.m., the Founder’s Hall bell rung out across the College of Mount Saint Vincent’s campus. For 17 minutes, the time between the two planes hitting the World Trade Center towers, the college was silent.

Later that day, a group of 40 Riverdale adults and children acknowledged the loss of life with new growth. The Riverdalians “arrived at Hackett Park on Riverdale Avenue, with 20 saplings, 15 shovels, assorted gloves and lots of energy,” according to Riverdalian and longtime educator Phyllis Tashlik.

Trees lost during last year’s tornado were replaced with young saplings.

Among the participants were members of Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale and Riverdale Presbyterian Church, along with a representative of the Parks Department, according to Ms. Tashlik.

At other ceremonies over the weekend, people of all faiths came together to remember.

Rabbi Avi Weiss, Father John Knapp of St. Gabriel’s Church, Dr. Mehnaz Afridi of Manhattan College’s Holocaust Resource Center and Rev. Roger Hambrick of Green Pastures Baptist Church Choir came together at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale on Saturday evening. Rabbi Weiss and Rev. Hambrick led a group of people, who marched with candles from HIR to the Fire Department of New York’s Ladder 52 on Riverdale Avenue.

A group of 30 seniors from the Schervier Apartments also marched on Sunday night around the Schervier campus, waving flags, singing patriotic songs and holding candles, according to Riverdale resident Bruce Snowden.

Mr. Snowden described the event as a “touching, simple, outpouring of patriotism.”


September 11, 2011, Engine 52 Hook, Ladder 52, Adam Wisnieski
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