PHOTOS: Mahwah Remembers 9/11

Ceremony honors lives lost 11 years ago

Mahwah residents and township officials hosted a memorial ceremony Tuesday night in recognition of the 11th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.  The ceremony included speeches from township officials, displays by Mahwah Boy and Girl Scouts and the fire and police departments and performances by Mahwah High School singers. Add your photos of the remembrance ceremony to the Patch gallery above. -- Follow Patch on Facebook and Twitter. For news straight to your email inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.

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Honoring Victims, Heroes On The 11th Anniversary Of September 11

Three area remembrance ceremonies; Upload photos and messages that represent what you are feeling Tuesday

Three remembrance ceremonies are giving Mahwah residents the opportunity to reflect on and remember 9/11 on Tuesday, which marks the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The township will host a remembrance ceremony at its September 11 memorial tree (across from Winter’s Pond) starting at 7 p.m. Tuesday. According to coordinator Councilwoman Lisa DiGiulio, attendees can expect speeches from township officials and performances by Mahwah High School singers. The exempt firefighters association has also set up flags representing the lives of the emergency responders lost on 9/11 near the remembrance tree. “I hope everyone will come out to honor those who lost their lives and those who helped save lives on September 11,” DiGiulio said. …

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Firefighters Display 403 Flags For Fallen 9/11 Heroes

Display will remain up for the next few weeks

Residents driving down E. Ramapo Ave. in Mahwah Thursday will notice a large memorial to the 403 police officers and firefighters who perished on 9/11. Members of the Mahwah Exempt Firefighters Association spent Wednesday evening setting up a display of 403 American flags in the ground near the township’s 9/11 Memorial Tree. The display also contains three signs explaining what the flags represent - 343 New York City Fire Department firefighters, 23 New York City Police Department officers, and 37 Port Authority Police Department officers who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. A fourth sign simply reads “Never Forget.” The Exempt Association began setting up the display last year, inspired by the tenth anniversary of the terrorist …

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Volunteer Center To Launch 9/11 Food Drive, Acts of Kindness

As the 11th anniversary of 9/11 draws closer, the Volunteer Center of Bergen County is calling for acts of kindness

The Volunteer Center of Bergen County is sponsoring a county-wide food drive on Sep. 11 to benefit the Center for Food Action. Donations of canned and packaged goods can be brought to the Center’s offices at 64 Passaic Street in Hackensack from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. The items needed most are: hearty soups, Parmalat milk, canned tuna and peanut butter. The food drive is being organized in light of the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance, a coast-to-coast initiative that seeks to observe September 11th as a national day of service, charity and compassion. “We encourage residents of all ages and abilities to mark this day of remembrance with acts of service, helping the less fortunate or a cause in which they are interested,” says Janet …

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Fire Company Dedicates September 11 Steel Memorial [PHOTOS]

Company requested a piece of steel from the World Trade Center in 2009

A piece of steel from the World Trade Center is now mounted on the front lawn of the Mahwah Company Two Firehouse on Island Road as a monument to those who lost their lives in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Firefighters, officials and residents held a ceremony Friday night to dedicate two new memorials in front of the firehouse – one to 9/11 victims and one to fallen Company 2 firefighters. According to Co. 2 firefighter Jim Krause, who helped coordinate the installation of the monument, Town Council President and firefighter John Spiech first requested a piece of WTC steel from the Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in October 2009. Company 2 members went to Hanger 17 at Kennedy Airport on September …

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Ramapo College Hosts 9/11 Journalists

Reports recount personal experiences from 9/11

MHS Remembers Fallen Alum

School plants a Memorial Tree to honor graduate who died on 9/11

September 11, 2001 is a day most people can't forget. It's a day that changed the way people perceived the world and reminded people of all the things in life we often take for granted. But, for the town of Mahwah and the Wortley family, it's the day they lost "a man with the biggest heart anyone's ever seen." Martin Wortley, a 1990 graduate of Mahwah High School, was born in Newbury Park, England, and at the age of 6 moved with his family to Ridgewood. When Martin was in ninth grade, his family moved to Mahwah, where Martin found his niche playing football under coach Egido Caporale. "He just drew people to him, with his sense of humor," says Caporale, who groomed Wortley into an excellent offensive and defensive tackle and helped him to …

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Ten Years Later, Mahwah Remembers

Township holds emotional ceremony Sunday morning

Mahwah government, police, fire, ambulance, and emergency response officials gathered with a large group of residents to remember the lives lost during the terror attacks ten years ago Sunday. Township residents commemorated the lives of those lost, and thanked those who continue to keep Mahwah safe. Township boy and girl scout troops, veterans, the fire and police departments' honor guards, the MHS chorus and marching band, Taps players, Bagpipe player and volunteer firefighter John Olesin, and Fardale Trinity Church singer Abby Talone all took part in the ceremony.

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Mahwah Firefighter: 9/11 Inspired Me To Join

Tom Murphy explains how the September 11 attacks motivated him to do something different with his life

Eleven years ago, Mahwah resident Tom Murphy was not the same man he is today. On September 11, 2001, Murphy was working as a stockbroker in NYC.  As a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Murphy lost his uncle, Michael SanPhillip of Ridgewood, who worked for Sandler O’Neill, and three friends – a college roommate’s father, Richard Keane, a rugby teammate, Tommy Knox, and a college friend, Jimmy Riches. Feeling lost, he, like so many others across the country, did not know how to cope with the national tragedy and his own personal loss. Though nothing more than his uncle’s wallet has been found in the Trade Center rubble, the family held a memorial service for Michael SanPhillip on October 8, 2001. That same day, Murphy’s cousin was …

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