Sept. 11 Remembrance Ceremony Planned in Tampa

It has been a decade since the worst attack on American soil occurred, and a Hillsborough community-wide effort will bring together citizens, first responders and members of our Armed Forces for a 9/11 Ceremony of Remembrance.

Hillsborough County, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the cities of Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City, MacDill Air Force Base and the Hillsborough County Veterans Council have joined together to hold this special event at noon on Friday, Sept. 9, in Joe Chillura Courthouse Square in downtown Tampa, at the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Pierce Street. 

Florida Gov. Rick Scott will be the guest speaker. The event will also feature the laying of wreaths on a Trade Center beam for those who perished in the Sept, 11, 2001, attacks and the resulting military actions. 

The wreaths will be laid on the 14-foot-long steel beam from the World Trade Center by special guests with personal connections to 9/11 and the wars on terror. 

A design for a permanent memorial to house the beam also will be unveiled at this event. A multi-jurisdictional Honor Guard will surround the beam.

School children from Rampello Downtown Partnership School will perform patriotic musical selections and the United States Air Force will perform a fly-over.

There will be free parking for the event in the Pierce Street Garage (at the southeast corner of Pierce Street and Kennedy Boulevard), which is accessible via the Jackson Street entrance. 

The date and time was chosen so as not to conflict with religious observances over the Sept. 11 weekend.