Elon's Student Government Association passed legislation that led to new efforts to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and remember the lives of those who were killed.
A thousand American flags lined the walkways of Elon University’s Young Commons on Thursday as the Student Government Association spearheaded a new effort to remember the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and to honor those killed or injured as a result.
“We really tried our best to commemorate the day in every way we could,” Heather Lamb, the sophomore class vice president, said. In addition to the flags, the Alamance Building bell chimed at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m. and 9:37 a.m. to mark when planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. A moment of silence was also held at the university’s Call to Honor ceremony where members of the Class of 2018 pledged to abide by the Elon Honor Code.
“A year ago, students came to the [SGA’s] Student Issues Committee and brought up that there was nothing that the [we] had done as a student body to commemorate this special day,” Lamb said. That led to legislation that charged the Special Events Committee, which Lamb chairs, with coordinating an annual remembrance.
“In the Elon community, there are so many people who are from New York and New Jersey and up in that area, so it is important to always remember … because it’s not like it has stopped affecting them,” Lamb added. “It’s important to still remember that 9/11 is affecting a lot of people’s lives and there is still a lot that we can do even though it happened 13 years ago.”
Students, faculty and staff had the opportunity to donate a dollar to “purchase” one of the 1,000 flags SGA bought to display on Young Commons. The effort raised several hundred dollars that will be donated to a 9/11 relief fund, Lamb said.
Despite the fact that many of Elon’s current students were very young when the attacked happened, Lamb says that doesn’t lessen the significance of the day.
“It didn’t personally affect me then, but I think over the years it’s been something that’s really touched me,” she said. “And I’ve been able to see some of my friends that are here who were affected by it and how much it really affected people’s lives. So I really wanted to take the legislation that they had and do something with it and make it so that other students could see that we were doing something.”
Lamb hopes to grow the commemoration next year, perhaps to one flag for each of the almost 3,000 people who died as a result of the attacks. For now, there is a sense of pride in seeing so many Elon students take a moment to photograph the flags and reflect on the importance of the day.
“Everyone’s Instagramming about it and tweeting about it, which I think is awesome,” Lamb said. “I was getting emotional at the fact that everyone came together. It’s an amazing thing to see the campus come together as a whole.”