_________________ FREEPORT _________________
HERALD
September 16, 2021
Higher Education ENABLING A BRIGHTER FUTURE
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Higher Education Inside
Vol. 86 No. 38
A comical 25th cardboard race
Invasive fly could threaten crops
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SEPTEMBER 16 - 22, 2021
9/11 ceremony: ‘Never forget,’ 20 years on By REINE BETHANy rbethany@liherald.com
Reine Bethany/Herald
THE FREEPoRT FIRE Department color guard stood at attention as Kathleen Monestere read out the names of those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, with ceremony leader Alma Rocha beside her.
“It was a beautiful day, just like this.” These words, and similar ones, passed among village residents last Saturday as they streamed toward the Firefighter Richard T. Muldowney Jr. Memorial Lighthouse for the annual 9/11 ceremony. In the softening evening light, residents clustered at a respectful distance from the monument in the traffic circle where South Bayview Avenue meets Ray Street and Branch
Avenue. Greetings were muffled, and movement within the crowd was muted. The ceremony, hosted for the 17th year by Columbia School Principal Alma Rocha, opened with remarks by Kathleen Monestere, one of the Freeport residents who helped maintain a wooden community 9/11 shelter in the traffic circle before construction of the Memorial Lighthouse in 2011. “On Sept. 18, 2001, Phyllis Held placed a flier in the mailboxes of our neighborhood,” Monestere said. “She was askContinued on page 12
The story of how a Freeport Sept. 11 memorial came to be By REINE BETHANy rbethany@liherald.com
This following is a compilation of first-person remembrance by Kathleen Monestere at the annual 9/11 ceremony and in a later interview. On Sept. 18, 2001, Phyllis Held placed a flier in the mailboxes of our neighborhood. She wanted us to gather at the traffic circle at Bayview Avenue and Ray Street. We came. There was nothing really planned. It was only a week after 9/11, so there was lots of confusion.
We held hands and sang patriotic songs. We prayed for the families and friends of those whom we heard had lost their lives. An off-duty Freeport police officer brought a recording of Whitney Houston singing “The Star-Spangled Banner’’ and blasted it from his car. We lit candles. The next evening, some of us returned to light the candles. And so it began, the 9/11 neighborhood memorial. Children left toys and stuffed animals. Families left pictures and mementos. Fire engine companies in Freeport sent donations, and I went to Ikea and bought the enclosed lanterns to put the candles in.
I
t restored comfort to a host of families who put their names on our memorials. Everybody got a lantern. KATHlEEN MoNESTERE Former Freeporter
Neighbors would stop by and share a story and leave a box of candles or a donation. Some families brought news articles to the memorial, but we had no place to display them. So, in November 2001, two
firefighters from Bayview Avenue Hose 3 built us a very rough shelter. It was at least a place to display what families brought — stuffed animals, a picture of Richie Muldowney, of Tim Higgins (who both died in the towers). I put the articles and the pictures in Ziploc bags and changed the bags from time to time.
During the winter, my neighbors and I got up there at about 5 or 6 p.m., and the candles might stay lit until 10 at night. Often, people who were not even from Freeport would stop by and tell stories of family members or friends who died on 9/11. It restored comfort to a host of families who put their Continued on page 12