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Fair Oceanside remembers 9/11
At 6 p.m., the Schoolhouse Green was filled with children’s laughter. There was a soccer game being played next door, and kids from the Boardman Elementary School Chorus frolicked near the gazebo with kids from Cub Scout Pack 230. Their exuberance was a welcome sight, their laughter a welcome sound. None of these kids had yet been born on September 11, 2001.
When the Oceanside Fire Department opened the 9/11 remembrance ceremony with the presentation of the flag, the laughter stopped. During a moment of silence, before Reverend Danielle Miller and Rabbi Uri Goren read the names of people from Oceanside who lost there lives as a result of the terrorist attack 13 years ago, there didn’t seem to be a sound in the world. The names were: James Barbella, Joshua Birnbaum, James Kelly, Laura Marchese, Janice Ashley, Marc Zeplin, Robert Spear, Shannon Fava, Thomas Gardner, Mark Jerome Dominguez, Jeff Nussbaum, Rich Aaronow, John Florio, Jim Kelly, Ken Marino, Stephen Malantia, Tim Haviland, Tom Kelly, William Spitz, Port Authority First Floor Responders and WTC Port Authority Police and Fire Departments.
There were soft songs and solemn prayers. Jaquelin Kerschenbaum of Oceanside High School sang the National Anthem. Rabbi Goren read the poem “One” by Cheryl Sawyer. The chorus sang “We Will.” Reverend Stephen Phillips read the prayer of invocation, which concluded, “Please grant us your peace, your shalom, your renewal.”
