You are invited to attend the 20th anniversary “Day of Remembrance and Hope” in Hampton on 9/11/2021. This is the longest-running commemoration of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks in the Hampton Roads region.
Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, 8:45 a.m.
Gosnold’s Hope Park, 109 E. Little Back River Road
Hampton held the first event in honor of those lost just 3 months after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the passengers of flight 93, who fought against hijackers presumably bound for the U.S. Capitol and died in a crash in Somerset County, Pa. Since then, it has been held annually on Sept. 11.
Hampton has strong connections to the military, as home of the first U.S. Air Force Base. In addition, the city contains one of — if not the — largest concentrations of military veterans in the nation.
Those ties moved Angela Leary, along with other concerned citizens and the city’s Parks Department, to begin a tradition that grew to include the gathering of soil from the site of each attack (“the Soils of Justice”) and using those in combination with tree plantings (“the Trees of Hope”). The result is a quiet area of reflection at Gosnold’s Hope Park with trees that allows for reflection on lives lost and hope for the future at any time of the year. A bench and new plantings will be installed this year prior to the event.
This year’s event will begin with the tolling of a bell to mark the time the first plane hit 20 years ago. Formal remarks will begin at 9 a.m. As is the tradition, the event will conclude with a variety of volunteers who will break off and read aloud the name of the more than 11,000 people who lost their lives in that attack and those who died in the subsequent fight against terrorism.
