{"id":346612,"date":"2026-09-14T19:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346612\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T19:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:34:58","slug":"brooklyn-9-11-vigils-mark-25-years-since-attacks-across-marine-park-and-bay-ridge-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346612\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn 9\/11 vigils mark 25 years since attacks across Marine Park and Bay Ridge \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Brooklyn communities once again gathered in vigils<\/a> to remember the lives lost \u2014 and the neighbors, first responders and public servants who helped carry the borough through the aftermath.<\/p>\n

In Marine Park, community members gathered Sept. 10 at the Carmine Carro Community Center for a 9\/11 vigil led by Assembly Member Jaime Williams, a tradition that dates back to Sept. 23, 2001.<\/p>\n

\"\"Marine Park residents gathered on Sept\/ 10 for a vigil.Photo by Arthur de Gaeta<\/p>\n

State Sen. Roxanne Persaud, who attended the Marine Park remembrance, reflected on the lasting impact of the attacks and the continued toll of 9\/11-related illnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a day that each of us remembers what we were doing and where we were when we were attacked. Some of us lost relatives, friends and colleagues,\u201d Persaud wrote on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Persaud noted that she continues to participate in annual remembrance events that remind Brooklynites how profoundly the world changed that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to annually update our health information on the registry,\u201d she said. \u201cEach year I participate in several events where we are reminded that our world changed on that day and we must Never Forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Marine Park vigil took place at Carmine Carro Community Center.Photo by Arthur de Gaeta<\/p>\n

A day later, hundreds gathered at the American Veterans Memorial Pier in Bay Ridge for another annual vigil hosted by NIA Community Services Network in partnership with State Sen. Andrew Gounardes and City Council Member Kayla Santosuosso.<\/p>\n

For Bay Ridge, the commemoration carries particular weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBay Ridge alone has lost so many to September 11th and its aftermath,\u201d Santosuosso said. \u201cThey were family, friends and neighbors. People who walked our sidewalks and lived in our homes. They are heroes whose names adorn street signs across our neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santosuosso said the annual gathering has become a decades-old tradition \u2014 one that reflects the neighborhood\u2019s longstanding commitment to looking out for one another.<\/p>\n

\"BayThe Bay Ridge community commemorates those killed during the terrorist attacks on 9\/11 at an annual vigil at the American Veterans Memorial Pier on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026.Photo by Paul Frangipane<\/p>\n

\u201cThis vigil of ours celebrates our capacity as neighbors to come together in mourning and strengthen each other in mutual support and love of those of us here tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virginia Chieco, director of development and communications at NIA Community Services Network, said the vigil has become an enduring part of Bay Ridge\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in Bay Ridge, we come together not only to remember, but to retain ourselves the strength that comes from community,\u201d Chieco said.<\/p>\n

She pointed to the \u201cspirit of service\u201d that emerged in the days and months following the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the days and months following Sept. 11, we saw neighbors helping neighbors, strangers reaching out to one another, and countless people answering the call to serve,\u201d Chieco said. \u201cThat spirit of service and compassion continues to guide our community today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Bay Ridge vigil was held at American Veterans Memorial Pier.Photo by Paul Frangipane<\/p>\n

Gounardes used the 25th anniversary to reflect on how much has changed since the attacks \u2014 and the responsibility of those who remember to preserve that history for people who do not.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-five years ago, in this very spot, one could look several miles north and see a fiery column of smoke and ash and dust spewing from where the towers of the World Trade Center once pierced the sky,\u201d Gounardes said. \u201cStanding here, one need only look down to see firsthand the destruction that had been wrought as papers and debris from the Trade Center site littered this pier.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he said, remembrance must go beyond mourning.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwent-five years later, it is no longer sufficient for us just to mourn,\u201d Gounardes said. \u201cTo grieve or to cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

With generations growing up without a personal memory of Sept. 11, he called on those who lived through the attacks and their aftermath to become stewards of that history.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, the living, our responsibility is to no longer be just a witness to the history of September 11th, but to also be custodians of that history to make sure it is never lost,\u201d Gounardes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur duty is not merely to be storytellers of that day, but to be custodians of that history. We must guard it and protect it. We must hold that history in trust for future generations so that they, too, can trace the still lingering scar of a wound that they have no memory of ever receiving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BayCity Council Member Kayla Santosuosso speaks during a 9\/11 vigil at the American Veterans Memorial Pier.Photo by Paul Frangipane<\/p>\n

Colonel Raul M. Medrano, garrison commander of Fort Hamilton, also reflected on Brooklyn\u2019s role in the response following the attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFort Hamilton became a staging ground for personnel and equipment essential to the massive response that this city needed,\u201d Medrano said.<\/p>\n

He described the relationship between Fort Hamilton and the surrounding community as one built on mutual support in the years following the tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wrapped your arms around us and we in turn swore to keep standing watch over you. That is the story of Brooklyn. Not just what happened on that Tuesday morning, but what happened in the days, months and years after, when a neighborhood decided that grief would not have the final word,\u201d Medrano said. \u201cResilience would.\u201d<\/p>\n

That resilience, he said, remains at the heart of the annual Bay Ridge gathering.<\/p>\n

\"BayMany victims of the 9\/11 attacks were born and raised in Bay Ridge and were commemorated at the vigil.Photo by Paul Frangipane<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I look around tonight, I see something that I believe is uniquely Brooklyn. I see a community that has never stopped showing up,\u201d Medrano said. \u201cYou refuse to let this moment fade into history. You refuse to let it become just a paragraph in a textbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Santosuosso, continuing to gather is itself an act of remembrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look out for each other, when we help a neighbor in need, even when we attend events like this one, we are keeping the impact of our lost loved ones alive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are showing that even in the face of inconceivable darkness and loss, our love for each other and the community we share wins out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Brooklyn communities once again gathered in vigils to remember…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[126246,5301,129745,129746,129747,7727,98,100,99,21195,129748,29333,21196,9,24,370,129749,63,129750,11803,129188,45688],"class_list":["post-346612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-25th-anniversary","tag-9-11","tag-9-11-vigil","tag-american-veterans-memorial-pier","tag-assemblymember-jaime-williams","tag-bay-ridge","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-carmine-carro-community-center","tag-councilmember-kayla-santosuosso","tag-fort-hamilton","tag-marine-park","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newsletter","tag-nia-community-services-network","tag-nyc","tag-sen-roxanne-persaud","tag-september-11","tag-september-11-anniversary","tag-state-sen-andrew-gounardes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}