Students take place in an event to honor the lives lost during 9-11
Kyle Brodt, Staff Writer
A total of 2,981 people dead in two days. Both of these days were September 11th, one in 2001 and one in 2012. The legacy of 9/11 and the Benghazi attacks is a grave one, but the Wingate University Young Americans for Freedom, or WU-YAF, wants to make sure that these days are not forgotten.
During the week leading up to September 11th this year, WU-YAF participated in a nationwide campus initiative, 9/11: Never Forget Project. According to YAF’s national website, over 200 campuses nationwide participated in this event where American flags are placed in the ground to represent lives lost in the attacks orchestrated on 9/11.
WU-YAF went the extra mile on Friday, September 9th and hosted a memorial service on campus that featured campus veterans and Representative Mark Brody.
Kyle Ferrebee, the WU-YAF President, helped to organize the event and said that he was “very proud” of the amount of volunteers that came out to help with the placing of flags. Ferrebee said that there was a total of around 36 to 38 people, many of which were not members of WU-YAF.
Photo Courtesy of: Kyle Ferebee
At the event on Friday, campus veteran Brandon Hunt and Representative Mark Brody both spoke on their experiences with 9/11 and how it affected them. Hunt, who is a retired Army veteran, is also the head of Student Veterans Organization on campus, touched on his decision to join the military, which was spurred by the attacks in New York. Brody’s message focused on why the 9/11 attacks happened and how America showed strength and resiliency in the time after the attacks.
Photo Courtesy of: Kyle Ferebee
Ferrebee said that the events main focus was to, “Educate people who were not around enough people that have actually talked about what happened on 9/11.” The current freshman class at Wingate would have been around three years old when the 2001 attacks occurred.
Ferrebee says that he believes there is not enough education in schools on the attacks, “It still seems as though it was just yesterday.” Other schools in North Carolina, including UNC-Chapel Hill and Mars Hill University, also participated in this nationwide initiative which included a total of 206 institutions made up of colleges and high schools.
The 9/11: Never Forget Project is the largest campus initiative of its kind in the United States. If you are interested in volunteering or joining WU-YAF, they post their future events on outlets such as Facebook, but Ferrebee says that the best way to find out about events is through word-of-mouth around campus.
Edited by: Sara Gunter
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