Thursday, October 1, 2026
Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, communities across Nassau County’s North Shore continue to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people who died, while emphasizing the acts of courage, service and community that followed the tragedy.
In Sea Cliff, the annual 9/11 commemoration remains centered around a clock outside the village’s junior library that was converted into a memorial following the attacks. The ceremony has followed a largely consistent format for more than two decades, according to Phil Como, commander of Sea Cliff’s James F. Brengel American Legion Post 456.
Como, who was a Sea Cliff village trustee in 2001, recalled watching the second plane strike the World Trade Center on television after receiving a call from his stepdaughter.
“I was flabbergasted,” Como said. “I thought I was watching a replay, but it was the second one.”
He later went to Sea Cliff’s Village Hall, where he said he was the only trustee present at the time, and contacted members of the fire department. As the scope of the attacks became clearer, Como recalled, Sea Cliff became unusually quiet.
“It became an eerie, silent day,” he said.
The clock had originally been funded through private donations for another purpose, but after the attacks, Como proposed making it a 9/11 memorial. A plaque was added with a message about those who died at the World Trade Center and those who worked to save them.
The annual ceremony is intentionally brief, Como said, typically lasting about 15 minutes and involving village officials, religious leaders, firefighters and community members. This year, the ceremony included a prayer, “Amazing Grace” and taps.
“It’s not a celebration. It’s a commemoration,” Como said. “We’re just saying we remember.”
At this year’s ceremony, held at 8:46 a.m. in remembrance of the North Tower being struck, speakers also reflected on the passage of time and of the generation that has grown up without firsthand memories of the attacks. Sea Cliff Mayor Elena Villafane choked up while emphasizing that the responsibility to preserve those memories rests with those who experienced the day.
“We must not remember only those who were taken from us,” Villafane said, “but also the countless acts of courage and sacrifice that followed.”
At Locust Valley Central School District, the 25th anniversary was marked through ceremonies and classroom instruction across the district’s schools.
The district held a Back the Blue ceremony in the secondary school, featuring the national anthem, taps, a remembrance speech and a moment of silence. Social studies teachers also incorporated lessons about the attacks into their classes, using personal accounts, stories from the 9/11 Museum and other firsthand materials.
At the elementary level, students participated in ceremonies at the district’s Bayville and Locust Valley schools. Classroom teachers focused on the concept of heroism, asking students to consider what makes someone a hero.
Kristen Turnow, the district’s superintendent, said educators have an important role in preserving the stories of people who responded to the attacks.
“You know, stories are what lasts with people,” Turnow said. “It’s not a lecture. It’s not a textbook, but a personal story that kids can relate to is what adjusts and helps them reflect upon why that day was so tragic, but also how that patriotism really rose from that tragedy.”
Mike LoGerfo, the district’s K-12 coordinator of English and social studies, said the anniversary was his first year overseeing the district’s approach to teaching about 9/11 events, having been an assistant principal in the district beforehand.
LoGerfo himself recounted being home recovering from shoulder surgery when the attacks occurred. He later left the business world and entered education, beginning his teaching career at a Manhattan school that had been deeply affected by the attacks.
As fewer students today have personal connections to Sept. 11, LoGerfo said primary sources, firsthand accounts and contemporary news reports can help students understand its historical impact.
“History keeps living on,” he said. “It gets further and further away.”
In the hamlet of Oyster Bay, Gaitley Stevenson-Matthews of Glen Cove has spent years participating in the community’s commemoration, including singing the national anthem with the Oyster Bay Community Band. He said he also uses the day to reflect on the ways North Shore residents responded immediately after the attacks.
For Stevenson-Matthews, the response of ordinary people is as important to remember as the tragedy itself.
“I don’t want us to simply remember how America was attacked. I want us to remember how Americans responded,” he said. “I mean, we came together, we served one another, we looked after strangers.”
Stevenson-Matthews said his participation in the ceremony is a form of service to the community.
“It is a shared experience,” he said. “Every time you sing something like the national anthem in public, every time it is different, and every time it is about connecting with the people who are there.”
The ceremonies differ in structure and scale, but Stevenson-Matthews said they share a common purpose: preserving individual memories and the broader story of how communities responded.
“The common thread is that we all have a story,” he said.
As the anniversary passes, Sea Cliff, Locust Valley and Oyster Bay are continuing traditions that began in the aftermath of the attacks while adapting them for people who have no firsthand memory of Sept. 11.
For Como, the obligation is self-evident.
“To forget would be sacrilegious,” he emphasized.
