Utah Remembers Victims Of 9/11

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Around the state, Utahns honored the victims of 9/11 with a variety of events.

From a field of flags to an order from the governor, citizens marked the anniversary in different ways.

Utah Healing Field

Since 2002, more than 3,000 flags have flown in front of Sandy City Hall each Sept. 11.

Organizers said they hope the “Utah Healing Field” helps people do just that — heal.

Shauna Jorgensen, the Utah Healing Field Chairwoman, urged parents to utilize it as a teaching tool for their kids.

“The significance of the Utah Healing Field is beyond whatever could be written in a text book,” she said. “The patriotic feelings, the tender, and the sacred feelings that you gain and feel and experience when walking the field is like a live cemetery.”

Meagan Franco and her young child visited the field Tuesday.

“It’s weird to think I have siblings and my baby and they don’t remember it,” she said. “They don’t know the significance it had. Even though he’s tiny, I think it’s important to bring him here every year just to let him know what happened and all the people that we lost from it.”

There was a ceremony that evening, and the event will run through Sept. 12.

“There’s some (flags) with teddy bears, there’s some with red bandannas, there’s other ones that don’t have anything extra on them. Every single flag is signifying one individual victim on 9/11 and it also tells their bio,” Jorgensen said.

Money raised by sponsoring a flag this year will go toward Operation Underground Railroad, which rescues kids enslaved by sex trafficking.

For more information or to volunteer — they’re looking for help taking down the flags — go to healingfield.org/Utah.

Raising the flag at the new airport

Construction workers and first responders held a remembrance event on the site of the new SLC airport.

A giant Star-Spangled Banner punctuated the event, hoisted by machinery above the gathering of people.

.@slcairport construction workers and first responders held a 9/11 remembrance event this morning on site of #TheNewSLC to commemorate the 17th anniversary of this tragic day.#NeverForget911 pic.twitter.com/O7rM2ESiBK

— SaltLakeCityAirport (@slcairport) September 11, 2018

Utah government honors victims of 9/11

Congressman Chris Stewart remembered 9/11 by presenting an American Flag to West Valley City Fire Station 74. He spoke with firefighters there and made other stops around the state, like at Hillside Middle School in Salt Lake City

Gov. Herbert ordered flags to be at half-staff at all state facilities from sunrise to sunset in memory of all those who lost their lives.

Flags are flying at half-staff in memory of 9/11. Today we remember the many lives lost and the selfless acts of first responders and ordinary Americans alike. pic.twitter.com/CerO6O7n6F

— Gov. Gary Herbert (@GovHerbert) September 11, 2018