{"id":411138,"date":"2026-09-26T07:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T07:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411138\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T07:58:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T07:58:20","slug":"lennard-high-school-jrotc-hosts-9-11-cadet-memorial-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411138\/","title":{"rendered":"Lennard High School JROTC Hosts \u20189\/11 Cadet Memorial Walk\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Presentationofthecolors-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C2241&amp;ssl=1\" data-caption=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"609\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Presentationofthecolors-scaled.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Presentationofthecolors\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On September 11, the Lennard High School JROTC program hosted its 9\/11 Cadet Memorial Walk, inviting the local community to remember the tragedy that befell the nation 25 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Gathering on the Lennard High School track, the event began with the national anthem and the presentation of the colors. The memorial walk commenced shortly thereafter at 8:46 a.m. sharp, a gesture to the hour at which Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Participants then walked 2.977 miles, a march to honor each life lost on 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p>Among those in attendance were the Lennard JROTC Cadet Corps, Fire Rescue 17, county sheriffs, SouthShore Chamber members, representatives from the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) and local news outlets, including Fox News 13 and Bay News 9. The event\u2019s guest speaker was retired U.S. Army Col. Thomas Hanley.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HanleyandGroup.jpg\" height=\"450\" width=\"600\"   class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-104635 sp-no-webp\" alt=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"104635\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/2026\/09\/lennard-high-school-jrotc-hosts-9-11-cadet-memorial-walk\/hanleyandgroup\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HanleyandGroup-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1920\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"HanleyandGroup\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/HanleyandGroup-scaled.jpg?fit=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Participating cadets were grateful for the opportunity to remember 9\/11 alongside members of their JROTC and Ruskin communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was very excited because it definitely is a tragic event that needs to be covered,\u201d said Peyton McGregor, a sophomore and a company commander. \u201cSo, the way that we handled it, I definitely thought that was done very well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nathan Roberts, a junior and battalion adjutant, echoed McGregor\u2019s enthusiasm, explaining, \u201cI was very excited as it would allow me to \u2026 memorialize, I think. Just everyone who ha[d] fallen that day and to really just show them respect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roberts and McGregor also explained how this memorial walk helped shape their understanding of 9\/11.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NeverForgetBanner.jpg\" height=\"450\" width=\"600\"   class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-104636 sp-no-webp\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"104636\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/2026\/09\/lennard-high-school-jrotc-hosts-9-11-cadet-memorial-walk\/neverforgetbanner\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NeverForgetBanner-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1920\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"NeverForgetBanner\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ospreyobserver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NeverForgetBanner-scaled.jpg?fit=600%2C450&amp;ssl=1\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really put into perspective for me, at least, how many people had fallen that day,\u201d said Roberts. \u201cAs when I heard the number of people that died, it really made me understand why we were walking those 12 laps, we walked [those] \u2026 2.977 miles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McGregor emphasized how the distance traveled by cadets was something that resonated with her, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt definitely made me understand more, just walking,\u201d said McGregor. \u201cYou think about it first and you\u2019re like, we\u2019re just going to do these 12 laps. And then as you\u2019re walking, you\u2019re thinking [about] how everything happened, how many families this affected and just friends. These are just ordinary people out there that lost their lives, as well as like the firefighters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On September 11, the Lennard High School JROTC program hosted its 9\/11 Cadet Memorial Walk, inviting the local&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-411138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}