Remembering 9/11: White Plains City School District students help honor lives lost 25 years ago

Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, 16 White Plains City School District students stood beside a memorial Friday morning to help a community honor six of its own and nearly 3,000 others whose lives were taken that day.

The White Plains High School and Highlands Middle School students – accompanied by teachers Emory Davis, Paul Davis and Michael Sanchez – joined city officials, first responders, clergy members, families and community members at Liberty Park for the city’s 25th Anniversary September 11 Remembrance Ceremony.

Recreation and Parks Commissioner Beth Bricker opened the solemn ceremony, followed by an opening prayer from Joseph Riverso of Archbishop Stepinac High School, who lost his 34-year-old uncle and namesake, Joe, on 9/11 when he worked for Cantor Fitzgerald.

The names of the six White Plains residents who perished that day were read aloud. In addition to Mr. Riverso, they were Sharon Balkcom, Marisa Dinardo, Hemanth Kumar Putter, Gregory Rodriguez and Linda Sheehan.

Deputy Recreation and Parks Commissioner Darren Valdes led a moment of remembrance and a member of the White Plains Fire Department rang a bell in their memory, its sound carrying through the park.

WPHS senior Mahi Ayesha joined Mayor Justin C. Brasch in laying a wreath at the memorial. Other students accompanied members of the White Plains Common Council to place flowers at the site.

“I was very honored to participate and be able to give something back to the community in order to honor the lives lost,” Mahi said. “Putting the wreath was very symbolic, knowing that they sacrificed their lives, and we won’t forget them.

For Mahi, the history of Sept. 11 also carries a personal dimension. She said she grew up hearing about the attacks from her Muslim parents, who experienced prejudice in their aftermath.

“It’s something I’ve grown up learning about and haven’t forgotten,” she said.

The ceremony unfolded quietly beneath the trees at the park, where a newly planted October Glory Red Maple tree now serves as another living memorial. Mayor Brasch said the tree represents “peace and strength” as well as “resilience and adaptability during difficult times.”

He directed much of his message to the young people standing and seated before him.

“For those of us that lived through September 11th, it doesn’t feel that long ago,” Mayor Brasch said, adding that the response to fear offered a lesson that remains relevant 25 years later.

“In the face of fear, we come together,” he said. “We remember that what unites us is much stronger than what divides us.”

The mayor urged the students to honor those who died through their own actions.

“Do an act of kindness, help others, volunteer in your community, build our world to make it better and stronger,” he said.

Mayor Brasch noted that the toll of Sept. 11 did not end that fateful morning. He spoke of former White Plains Councilman Rich Payne, whose brother, Brian Payne, a volunteer firefighter in Larchmont, responded to Ground Zero and died in 2022 from 9/11-related cancer.

“The effects of 9/11 are with us day and night throughout our community,” he said.

The mayor was joined by Council President Victoria Presser and Common Council members Evelyn Alicea-Santiago, Jeremiah Frei-Pearson, Thomas Caruso, Valerie Simmons and Nicholas Wolff.

The program also included Congressman George Latimer, State Sen. Shelley Mayer, Assemblyman Chris Burdick and County Legislator Jenn Puja, along with city officials, police officers and firefighters.

For Highlands seventh-grader Max Varghese, the ceremony brought a history lesson out of the classroom and into a community still carrying painful memories.

“I felt like it was really meaningful, and it really helped me understand how it felt like to be there and honor the lives that were lost,” Max said, adding that he knew before Friday that terrorists had attacked the Twin Towers but little beyond that.

“Being here, I’m learning so much more,” he said. “I feel so empathetic for all the people whose lives were lost.”

For the 25th anniversary this year, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum added a seventh moment of silence to its annual New York City commemoration specifically to recognize those who have died from 9/11-related health effects.

The ceremony concluded with a closing prayer and remarks from Rabbi Lester Bronstein of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue and the playing of “Taps” by Robert Wynn of the U.S. Marines.

For the students, the morning offered something that dates, photographs and textbooks alone cannot provide: the chance to see how history lives within a community.

Mayor Brasch asked them to carry that history forward without carrying forward hatred.

“We can be bitter and we can be angry,” he said. “But the most important thing is, what can we do to make the world better … do an act of kindness, have courage and help those in our community, in our world,” he said.

“We can make a better world out of the ashes from 9/11,” he added.