Candles lit the night as members of the Pace community walked around Choate Pond in remembrance of the tragic events that had occurred on Sept 11.

Marking the thirteenth anniversary of that tragic day, Pace hosted a memorial service featuring speakers sharing their 9/11 experiences and personal stories, followed by a candle lit vigil around the pond.

Speakers of the event included Applied Psychology & Human Relations major and member of Alpha Phi Delta Dan Garcia, Biology major and member of Phi Sigma Sigma Maria Lane, and Director of Counseling Center Dr. Rosa B. Ament.

“I think it is important to memorialize and remember all the people who had died that day. I think it is also important to remember all the courageous men and women who also ran to the towers to help. I also think it’s important to remember our veterans, some of whom basically signed up triggered by what happened on 9/11,” Ament said. “So I think it’s important to remember 9/11 for a lot of reasons. I have a particular bias, maybe it comes from my culture, maybe it comes from our religion, I don’t know. But my bias is that as long as we hold the memory, we remember those who have perished and who have given their lives since then to protect all of us.”

The event also included the readings of personal stories and poems about that fateful day, as well as a playing of Alan Jackson’s tribute song “Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning.” The event concluded with a quiet walk around the pond and the placement of the candles on the 9/11 monument by Mortola library: The Book of Remembrance.

Not only did the Pace community remember 9/11 through a memorial service, but Mortola Library also played its part by hosting a showcase of artifacts and memorabilia from Ground Zero titled: “Mortola Library Remembers.”

“Any American or any person of the world was affected by the event,” said Rose Gillen, Head of Research and Information Systems at Mortola Library. “We are trying to tie it into a talk. The library is sort of the hub of campus. We are trying to make it so students are really interested in what’s going on in the library.”

The exhibit itself includes around 15 artifacts from the New York State Museum, as well as a detailed timeline of the events from that fateful day and a selection of books that tie into the subject of 9/11. The artifacts include objects taken from Ground Zero like a license plate, cell phone, and even a fragment of an airline fuselage.

“I wanted to bring something to our campus that the library could host,” said Daniel Sabol, Evening/Weekend Reference Librarian.

Since May, Sabol came up with the idea and worked with Gillen to bring the artifacts from the New York State Museum down through courier.

“Once we hung up the timeline, we hoped students would stop and look,” Gillen said. “I hope to see a positive influence in the students. In the end, we want the students to be glad.”

Both Gillen and Sabol hope to make an impact on the community through the library resources and looks to see more student feedback.

“We would love to have some more input from the students,” Gillen said, both in reference to the 9/11 memorial and also to the upcoming initiative of a Mortola student advisory council, which would add a student perspective to future library initiatives. “This is great, and in the end we would love to have feedback from students saying that it touched them, that they learned something from it, or that they are glad we did it.”

The artifacts can be seen on display within the glass exhibits near the entry of the library along with the selected books to go along with the showcasing. The timeline runs along the wall with detailed information of terrorist attacks and also an intricate timeline of the tragic day by the hour.

“There were a bunch of little steps to bring it all together,” Sabol said. “I don’t think it matters where you are from, somebody everywhere lost somebody. People from all over the world were there that day.”

For more information on the exhibit or how to contribute to future exhibits, students can contact Daniel Sabol or Rose Gillen.