CSU plans 9/11 memorial events

Columbus State University’s Cunningham Center will be the site for a day-long “September 11 Remembrance Day.”

Opening at 9 a.m., on Tuesday, Sept. 11, the event will feature educational displays; community public safety exhibits and demonstrations; videos, artifacts and stories from “Ground Zero” in New York; musical performances; and a closing vigil at 8 p.m. and military fly-over at 8:15 p.m, according to a university statement. Remembrance events will include:

• Ground Zero artifacts including a 1,700-pound piece of World Trade Center steel, rescue equipment, personalized notes and messages and flags
• Personalized items memorializing 9-11 Pentagon victim Marjorie Champion Salamone, provided by her mother, Lillian Champion of Pine Mountain
• Simultaneous and continuous large-screen video presentations of the “Inside 9-11” documentary; live news feeds from remembrance events in New York City, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania; and a compilation of local news interviews from 2001 with local officials and ground zero rescue workers.
• Hazardous device response demonstrations utilizing both a robot and explosives-sniffing canine
• Musical performances, from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., by high school ensembles.

Columbus Consolidated Government, In conjunction with the activities at the Cunningham Center, CSU students will stage a brief, “CSU Remembers” vigil at the clock tower, starting at 11:55 a.m. and including a tolling of the tower bell at noon.

Groups expected to take part in the event include Columbus Consolidated Government, the Muscogee County School District, the Muscogee County sheriff’s and fire departments, Homeland Security, God Bless Fort Benning, the Columbus Museum, the Salvation Army, the Community Emergency Response Team, CSU’s Cunningham Center for Leadership Development, and the university’s Student Government Association and Student Activities Council.