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The Derby Sept. 11 monument.
DERBY — The Valley joined together on the Derby Green Wednesday evening to mark the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
At least 250 people attended the ceremony, which featured a variety of speeches from political dignitaries and local first responders.
Michael Witek, a past captain at the Derby Storm Engine Co., served as emcee. He urged Boy Scouts holding U.S. flags to learn about what happened Sept. 11 so that the spirit of those lost lives on.
“Many first responders and innocent people going to work, just trying to make a living, lost their lives,” Witek told the crowd in front of the Derby Green gazebo. ​“Today we were are here to memorialize and pay tribute to those people.”

Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Derby Scouts during a Sept. 11 ceremony on the Green.
It’s been 18 years since terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed to the ground in Shanksville, Pa. Nearly 3,000 people died and more than 6,000 people were injured.
Speakers Wednesday included Derby Mayor Rich Dziekan, Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti, state Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria, state Rep. Kara Rochelle, state Fire Administrator Jeffrey Morrissette, new Derby Fire Commissioner Gary Parker, interim Storms Chief Brian Mezzapelle, Derby Police Commission chairman Sam Pollastro and Derby Fire Department Assistant Chief David Lenart.

Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Local first responders at the Derby Sept. 11 ceremony.
Jet Parker sung the National Anthem to open the ceremony.
The speakers relayed personal experiences from that day, recounting the bravery of the first responders who went toward the burning Twin Towers that day.

Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Jet Parker sings the National Anthem.
Several speakers, including Dziekan, Rochelle and Parker, noted that names are still being added to the list of the dead because of 9/11 related illnesses.
“The ripple effect of 9/11 continues to this day,” Dziekan said. ​“That’s why we remember. We have to remember the sacrifices that have been made.”

Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Derby Mayor Rich Dziekan.
Morrissette, the state Fire Administrator, mentioned the collective feeling U.S. citizens had the day after 9/11. The country was in mourning, yet united.
It was a feeling — the American spirit — that can also be revisited each year on 9/11.

Photo by Eugene Driscoll
State Rep. Kara Rochelle.
“As a nation we were galvanized as one,” Morrissette said. ​“We have fractured from that point, but what a great opportunity to try to transport ourselves back to that time where we were as one, standing up as one nation and supporting not only our first responders, but our way of living in this country.”
Derby’s Sept. 11 memorial on the Green, which includes steel from the World Trade Center, is unfinished. Lenart said a plaque is still needed describing the monument.
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Photo by Eugene Driscoll
Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti.