S. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2013 For many Americans, the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, remains as vivid as if it happened yesterday.<\/p>\n
Twenty-five years later, the Greenawalds Fire Co. is making sure those memories \u2014 and the lives lost that day \u2014 are not forgotten. On the morning of 25th\u00a0anniversary, the department, with the help of South Whitehall Township and other rescue agencies, came together to hold their own 9\/11 ceremony filled with music and speeches.<\/p>\n
“We can only imagine the terror of those final moments and we can only imagine the families waiting at home, expecting a phone call or the sound of the key turning in the door they never came home,\u201d said former South Whitehall and Lehigh County Commissioner Brad Osborne, as he stood before the crowd.<\/p>\n
Outside the fire station stands a permanent memorial featuring a piece of steel from the World Trade Center site.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did petition the Port Authority of New York in New Jersey for a piece of steal from the World Trade Center site, and we were blessed to receive that in 2016,\u201d said Greenawalds Fire Chief Andew Garger.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6aa452cd0afef.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
WFMZ-TV | Sara Madonna<\/p>\n
During this year’s remembrance ceremony, members of the community were invited to approach the memorial, one by one. Each person received a rose and placed it at the monument, creating a personal tribute to those who died.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to have that personal touch, so everybody feels connected to the event and our monument,\u201d Garger said.<\/p>\n
For Garger, the anniversary is also an opportunity to make sure younger generations understand what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of members who weren’t born yet on September 11th, or who were very young when it happened,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, it’s important to pass along our memories of that day so the next generation can also remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ceremony also reflects the deep connection between Sept. 11 and the fire service.\u00a0For Garger, the events of 9\/11 helped reinforce his commitment to a life of service.<\/p>\n
Twenty-five years later, he hopes that same spirit will continue to reach younger generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think today there’s a lot of other things and a lot of other opportunities that are drawn to, but the need for community service is still very much there,\u201d Garger said.<\/p>\n
Chief Garger says the public is welcome any time to stop by the memorial at 2500 Focht Ave. and honor those lost on 9\/11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. \u2013 For many Americans, the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, remains as vivid as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[115842,119,121,120,813,118479,8589,664,58222],"class_list":["post-284086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-9-11","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-firefighters","tag-greenawalds-fire-co","tag-memorial","tag-south-whitehall-township","tag-world-trade-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}