MCKINNEY (1080 KRLD)- The City of McKinney will hold a ceremony to mark the 19th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, but this year's event will be broadcast on Facebook Live instead of welcoming thousands of people to Mitchell Park in-person.
The ceremony will include Mayor George Fuller, Congressman Van Taylor and McKinney's police and fire chiefs and will be available on Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/mckinneychamber.
Several New York City police and firefighters have retired to McKinney and will speak as well to share memories of responding that day.
McKinney has also set up flags for each person who died in the attack and a "Timeline of Remembrance" at Mitchell Park. That will be available for people to see in-person through Sunday. Families can attend on their own to avoid one large gathering.
"It's going to be beautiful once all the flags are out," says Lisa Hermes, the president and chief executive of McKinney Chamber of Commerce. "Beautiful, but also somber and sad, just seeing how many lives were lost in one day."
Hermes says the Timeline of Remembrance can help parents share their own memories with their kids. She says she heard about the attack on the radio while driving to work.
"They said, 'A plane hit the tower.' I just remember how things started to unfold. You didn't know what was going to happen next," she says. "Living in America, I hadn't ever felt the fear of, 'Oh, wow, we're under attack.'"
Hermes says memories and tributes can serve as a reminder of how the country came together after the attack.
"It's so weird to think of people pulling together and uniting. I hope that maybe remembering we can all come together as a country can be the silver lining to events like this," she says. "It can remind each other that we're all Americans."