Fayetteville Technical Community College held its annual 9/11 Remembrance on Thursday, recognizing the heroism and sacrifice of first responders while honoring the lives lost in the tragic attacks on the United States 21 years ago.
Local emergency services personnel featured prominently in the ceremony, which was held in the plaza beside the Tony Rand Gazebo.
Cumberland County Emergency Services provided the Honor Guard, and Fayetteville Fire Department Battalion Chief Patrick McArdle played a pair of musical selections on the bagpipes.
The memorial included remarks by FTCC Director of Student Activities Marlina Pineiro and a traditional bell-ringing ceremony and speech led by FTCC SGA Sergeant at Arms Lenard Cobb.
Chevonna “Chevy” Rose, a lead paramedic with Cumberland County EMS and an EMS instructor at FTCC, was the guest speaker.
Rose, a Fayetteville native and a 2017 graduate of FTCC, spoke of the personal impact the events of 9/11 had on her life, prompting her first to join the U.S. Army after high school and then to become a paramedic.
“The events of 9/11 were a large part of why I joined the military back in 2008,” Rose said. “I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be a part of the solution.”
Rose encouraged those in attendance to recognize the anniversary of 9/11 as “a day of remembrance and acknowledgement” rather than a day of mourning.
“As Americans, we came together and mobilized,” she said. “We took pride in cleaning up what was destroyed. We took steps to rebuild what was unjustly and inhumanely taken from our great nation. As a country, we stood up and fought back.”
