VOLUME 7 ISSUE 35
$3
Arts at the Canopy reception Page B2
September 11-17 2026
Never forget
33-hours, one community Give4Marion on Sept. 15 and 16 will provide key support for local nonprofits.
Lauren Deiorio, president/executive director of the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County, celebrates as donations come in for Give4Marion in 2022. This year’s campaign will run Sept. 15 and 16. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette file photo]
Staff report
F After 25 years, the events and aftermath of 9/11 continue to resound. town of Shanksville. The 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 people. This was the single largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil. The attacks caused the deaths of 441 first responders, the greatest loss of emergency responders on a single day in American history.” While a great many of you also may remember exactly where you were that day, and what you were doing at the time, according to the website, “100 million Americans are too young to remember the day that changed our city and nation forever.”
or 33 hours over the two days of Sept. 15 and 16, Marion County will come together for something bigger than any one organization, cause or donation. Give4Marion will return for its seventh year, bringing residents, businesses, foundations and community leaders together to support local nonprofits that work every day to strengthen our community and serve our neighbors. Over the past six years, Give4Marion has helped local nonprofits raise more than $8.5 million. Those dollars have supported organizations serving children and families, veterans, seniors, individuals experiencing homelessness, animals and many of our community’s most vulnerable residents.
See Never forget, page A7
See Community, page A10
Brian Stoothoff stands by the Flag of Honor, which contains the names of those killed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at the Ocala Fire Museum on NW Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Ocala on Sept. 8, 2026. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2026.
By Susan Smiley-Height susan@magnoliamediaco.com
O
n the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was sitting at my desk in the “Florida Today” newsroom in Melbourne on the Space Coast. There were always TVs droning in the background. On this day, however, what came across the screens made us all sit up and take notice. After the first plane hit the World Trade Center Twin Tower in a terrorist attack, the chatter began — What the heck is going on? After the second attack, the chatter got louder and the language got saltier
and the newsroom erupted into a buzzing hive of activity. By the time an airplane crashed into the Pentagon and another into a field in Pennsylvania, managers, editors, reporters and photographers were scrambling to put out a special section. I remember calling a local couple who we had learned were in New York City at the time. According to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum website, on that day, 19 terrorists associated with al-Qaeda, an Islamist extremist group, hijacked four commercial airplanes scheduled to fly from the East Coast to California.
“In a coordinated attack that turned the planes into weapons, the terrorists intentionally flew two of the planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, a global business complex in New York City, causing the towers to collapse. They also flew a third plane into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, in Arlington, Virginia. Passengers and crew members on the fourth plane launched a counterattack, forcing the hijacker pilot, who was flying the airplane toward Washington, D.C., to crash the plane into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, near the
160 years of tradition and excellence
Inaugural homecoming celebration on Sept. 19 will honor the legacy of Howard Academy. By Andy Fillmore andy@ocalagazette.com
T
he founding of Howard Academy, Ocala’s first African American school, will be marked with a daylong 160th Anniversary Inaugural Homecoming celebration on Sept. 19 at the
Howard Academy Community Center. “I’m very excited about it,” said Narvella Haynes, an Ocala resident and 1969 graduate of Howard High School, which grew out of the original academy. Haynes said many of her family members also attended the school and remarked on its “family
oriented” aspect. The celebration of the history and legacy of Howard Academy is a joint effort of Marion County Public Schools’ Howard Academy Community Center and the Friends of Marion County Black History Museum support group. See Howard Academy, page A5
Davida Randolph, program manager at the Howard Academy Community Center, is shown outside the venue in 2023. The center will be the site of the Howard Academy 160th Anniversary Inaugural Homecoming celebration on Sept. 19. [MAVEN Photo+Film file photo]
Get Ocala Gazette delivered right to your door! Subscribers will receive their paper through USPS on the USPS schedule. Subscription orders must be received by 5 pm on Tuesday in order to be included in the following week’s delivery. Starting at $13/month ocalagazette.com/subscribe
INSIDE:
Ocala budget by the numbers...........A6 License plate readers..........................A8 Sports.....................................................A9 Patriot’s Day..........................................B1 Calendar................................................B8