Long Island 9/11 ceremonies' forever focus: 'We have to keep the memory alive'

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, firefighter Steve Marsar was enjoying the first day of a scheduled vacation.

Estefani Garcia wouldn't be born for another four years.

But on Thursday, Garcia at Roosevelt High School and Marsar at Point Lookout, both had vivid thoughts and memories, if not firsthand for Garcia, of 24 years ago.

It was then much like Thursday's mild, late-summer morning, Marsar recalled to a crowd of hundreds gathered on the beach under a morning sun for Hempstead's annual remembrance ceremony. Marsar, a recently retired FDNY chief, described how department radios blared with alerts after the planes hit the Twin Towers. 

"Even the dispatcher was in disbelief," he said.

A day to remember

The event and others like it Thursday brought Long Islanders together to remember and honor those who died in the terrorist attacks, and in many cases, trade stories about where they were, how they survived or how it changed them. 

In the evening, the stirring story of Canadians showing their trademark bon ami by helping stranded travelers played out from the stage at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport — music and a message of hope and enduring humanity to move them.

"There were people from Long Island that lost their lives in the Twin Towers, so it’s an honor to be here to pay tribute," said Claude Elliott, the former mayor of Gander, a town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, in Northport before the start of a production of "Come From Away." 

The Tony Award-winning musical tells the true story of residents who opened their homes to air travelers stuck there after their commercial flights were grounded.

"In my community it was a good story," Elliot said. "But what happened here ... was the worst we’ve ever seen of mankind."

A ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park in Islip honored the 90 town residents who died on 9/11, and also served as a reminder of the nation's unsettled state in 2025: prayers for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, shot dead Wednesday while speaking on a college campus in Utah.

Prayers for the nation

The Rev. Michael Staneck, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Islip, said a prayer to close the ceremony that the nation be protected and spared from "further acts of terror and violence," especially "in a world and a country that is seemingly more and more divided every day."

For Garcia, listening to the recollections of others, either at tribute ceremonies like the one she attended Thursday at Roosevelt High or from family and friends, have helped her better understand 9/11 as far more than a part of history.

"I still feel like I was there — hearing the stories, what people share, all of the things I’ve heard," said Garcia, 17, at the ceremony inside the school's auditorium. 

Taylor Heedles, who also attended the Roosevelt ceremony and is the daughter of a 9/11 first responder, said teaching teenagers about the attacks is reason enough to commemorate the day.

"Most of them were not alive when this happened," said the Oceanside resident, who herself was in third grade. "We need to remember the people who we lost, the people who are still fighting the battle 23 years later."

At the Point Lookout ceremony, Marsar said he was driving along the Long Island Expressway and listening to a morning radio show when the news of the attacks interrupted the broadcast.

"Someone said a plane had crashed into one of the towers, and there was smoke coming from it," Marsar said.

It had to be some sort of mistake, Marsar remembered thinking. He pulled out his scanner and heard fire units responding to the north tower and braced for whatever faced him.

He then heard a fire officer say to the dispatcher that a plane had hit the south tower, but the baffled dispatcher still thought he was speaking about the north tower, Marsar said.

Within minutes, Marsar and the 13 other firefighters from his firehouse that were off-duty that day arrived at the station, but their captain kept them away from Ground Zero. Minutes later, the south tower collapsed.

"He wouldn't let us go, and that saved my life," Marsar told the crowd at the beach — a spot for many locals on Sept. 11, 2001 because of its clear view of lower Manhattan. On that day, they saw smoke billowing from the Twin Towers, Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti said.

Wall of Remembrance

Every year since, the Town of Hempstead has invited people from Long Island and the surrounding area to come back to the location for a sunrise ceremony to mark the anniversary and remember those who perished, including first responders who lost their lives trying to save others and those with illnesses related to their time spent at Ground Zero who have died since.

The town continues to add their names to its Wall of Remembrance at Point Lookout.

"We have to keep the memory alive," Ferretti said. "We have so many of the new generation that weren't alive on September 11, 2001, so doing this each and every year is a constant reminder ... that there were so many heroes on that day."

Ferretti said 304 more names have been added to the wall since last year, bringing the total to 4,864.

On Thursday morning, visitors packed the town-provided chairs set up on the sand and others stood or sat in beach chairs they brought with them as they listened to speeches, prayers and songs sung by Kellenberg Memorial High School's Gregorian Consortium choir.

Volunteers handed out white carnations, ceremony pamphlets and small American flags with stickers that bore the words: "We will never forget." Black markers were passed around, encouraging those in attendance to write the name of a loved one who died in the attacks or have suffered from 9/11-related illnesses. 

Merrick resident Carol Gies was there to remember the "love of her life," her husband, FDNY Lt. Ronnie E. Gies, of Squad 288 in Maspeth, who died on 9/11 at the age of 43. He was also chief of the Merrick Volunteer Fire Department.

'Not a day goes by'

Gies, now 63, recalled how the couple had just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary six days before the attacks.

"Not a day goes by where I don’t think of him," she said. "He was such a giving soul."

All three of their sons have since become firefighters, she said.

Gies said she remarried and has seven grandchildren, but she still meets once a month at a diner with the other widows of Squad 288.

After Thursday’s ceremony, she and her husband and grandson, all wearing red, white and blue, went to the shoreline along with several other attendees to toss carnations into the ocean.

"It’s hard," she said. "I thought I’d be strong this year, but I cried."

Retired NYPD officer Lt. Steve Tuckey, 60, of Bellmore, said he attends the ceremony every year.

"It makes me feel good about what all the first responders accomplished, and has given me peace with everything lost that day," he said. "I just pray every day that we leave a better world for our children and for generations to come."

Teach the children

James Ryder, 62, a Suffolk resident, stood before the students and staff assembled at Roosevelt High to remind everyone how the attacks haunt Long Island each time a first responder dies.

Ryder, a retired highway patrol officer with the NYPD who worked at Ground Zero, helped build the police department's database to return property of 9/11 victims to their loved ones. 

"More people have died from 9/11 ailments [and] 9/11 injuries than died on that very day. And they’re still dying," Ryder told the packed auditorium.

Afterward, Ryder explained his reason for speaking at the high school in an interview with Newsday.

"It’s important that the children know what happened," he said. "That they know about the loss, and that they know how our country did not fall to its knees."

School staff also shared their 9/11 experiences during the two-hour commemoration.

Principal Keith Saunders told students about his young daughter seeing the first plane strike the north tower from a window at her school. And math teacher William Wickes, who was working in the tower during the attack, told students, "the fact that [the plane] went in at an angle is probably the reason I’m still here."

Kevin Castillo, a 17-year-old senior, said the stories of first responders like Ryder set an example for the students who attended.

"It’s a very important thing that we have people who we can rely on. The fact they are putting their lives at risk, it’s a very commendable thing for us to [emulate]," Castillo said. "We want to leave this place better than how we found it."