Every year, Poly holds a memorial ceremony commemorating the ten Poly alumni and one parent lost on September 11th, 2001, when two hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 and 9:03 AM. The ceremony, held in Poly’s 9/11 memorial garden, hosts the entire student body and members of the victims’ families. Every year since the horrific attack, a tree has been planted in the 9/11 memorial garden as part of the ceremony. The assembly started with a speech from Head of School Audrius Barzdukas, who reminded all of how precious every human life is and how integral education is to life. He reminded students that they must value their education and should live fully conscious of how much they love everyone around them. Barzdukas followed this with a moment of silence to commemorate the moment when the first plane hit the tower.

Following this, Barzdukas introduced the 11 9/11 scholars of Poly, who each represent the positive traits of a member of the Poly community who perished.

“My scholarship is in memory of Andrew Rosenblum of the class of 1974. For me, being a 9/11 memorial scholar is both a huge honor and responsibility,” said sophomore Rebeka Cabrera. “I am incredibly grateful that I was chosen for this opportunity and I am motivated every day to do everything in my power to honor and represent Mr. Rosenblum as well as I possibly can.”

Acapella then performed “Cameron’s Song,” a song written by Cameron Bossert ‘02 as part of a musical he wrote to commemorate the tragedy. This year, the solo was performed by senior Olivia Whitmer.

The chapel ended with Barzdukas reading a powerful poem by Seamus Heaney, titled Chorus from the Cure at Troy. One line states: “History says, don’t hope/ On this side of the grave./ But then, once in a lifetime/ The longed-for tidal wave/ Of justice can rise up,/ And hope and history rhyme.” This line demonstrates that history is not set in stone. It also says that while it is damaging for one to dwell in the past, every life must be celebrated and justice will ultimately be able to set the wrongs of history right. The ceremony ended with every Poly student and faculty throwing a small handful of dirt into the base of the 16th tree to commemorate the years since 9/11.