25 years later, Anne Arundel County families and first responders remember 9/11
Twenty-five years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, communities across the country are remembering the nearly 3,000 people killed that day — and those who have died in the years since.
In Anne Arundel County, a ceremony Friday morning served as a reminder that for many local families and first responders, the impact of 9/11 is still deeply personal.
Every September 11, Louis Jerez of Pasadena attends the ceremony at Anne Arundel County Police Headquarters holding a poster of his cousin, Angel Louis Juarbe Jr.
Juarbe was a New York City firefighter who was helping evacuate people when the South Tower collapsed.
"I kept hope. I went to Yankee Stadium for the memorial," Jerez said. "And we had to face reality eventually when they found him."
This year, Jerez brought another picture with him — one of his brother, who helped with the recovery efforts at Ground Zero.
Jerez said his brother died just months ago from illnesses related to toxin exposure.
"He was my baby brother," Jerez said.
Twenty-five years after the attacks, the Anne Arundel County ceremony honored those killed that day, as well as the first responders, recovery workers and survivors who became sick or died in the years that followed.
"September 11, therefore, remains not simply an event in history, but a loss whose consequences continue to be felt by families and first responder communities today," Anne Arundel County Fire Capt. Jennifer MacAllair said.
The ceremony was held in front of the county's 9/11 Memorial, which was built using two steel beams from the World Trade Center that were acquired by the department in 2010.
For Anne Arundel County, that history is personal. In the days after the attacks, local first responders volunteered to help at Ground Zero in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and the crash site near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
"We now have an entire generation of firefighters and police officers who have no first-hand memories of that day," Anne Arundel County Assistant Fire Chief Larry Schultz said.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 attacks, including 441 first responders.
But Friday's message was also about remembering the people behind those numbers and making sure their stories live on for generations that did not witness the attacks themselves.
"Making sure that we don't reduce a person's entire life to simply a statistic assigned to one of the worst days in history," Schultz said, "and instead ensuring that their legacy is rooted in how they lived."
