Deerfield Remembers 9-11 with Special Ceremony

About 300 people gathered Sunday afternoon at the  to remember the Americans lost during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

With an honor guard of former service members and Deerfield police and fire staff at attention, a dozen-member contingency from the Deerfield High School marching band played tunes from the “Star Spangled Banner” to senior trumpeter Zack Berman’s solemn playing of “Taps.”

Deputy Chief Ian Kazian then addressed the audience, reminding them of the firefighters and police officers who serve the community daily, and the lives of others lost in service at Ground Zero in New York City.

Firefighter/paramedic Rick Bekielewski rang the traditional fireman’s bell ceremony – the final call for a fireman, “three rings, followed by three rings, followed by three rings, and then left to resonate at the end,” for “every victim of New York, not just the firemen,” he noted.

“So remember today those people who lost their lives in the buildings, the first responders who were heroes and those who lost their lives in the first response, and those who lost their lives in the plane in Pennsylvania,” Mayor Harriet Rosenthal told the audience.

Bekiewlewski and other firemen from Deerfield served in Manhattan, attending funerals for fallen firefighters. “There were so many firemen that were killed, they did not have enough people to come to those funerals, wakes and services,” he explained.

Deerfield firemen Jeff Kates, Tim Morony, Jim Philip and Ken Keorber traveled to Ground Zero within days of the attacks with a van and trailer full of tools to help dig through rubble.

“I still feel humbled, and it’s surreal for me,” said Lt. Kates.

Shortly after the outdoor ceremony was over, about 170 people went inside village hall chambers for a Deerfield Public Library-sponsored event to listen to Rabbi Aaron Melman, from Congregation Beth Shalom, in Northbrook, who is also the Northbrook Fire Department chaplain and who traveled to Ground Zero as a student chaplain to help minister support right after the attacks.

“It was the worst of times. It was the best of times,” he said, noting the twist on Charles Dickens’ famous prose to explain just how terrible things appeared when he arrived there, but just how the event brought out the best in Americans. Melman watched fire fighters and others dig, save lives and bring them to rest at a makeshift morgue where he provided the necessary services for which he was training.

The mayor looked back again on this day, 10 years ago.

“It was a beautiful day,” she added, recalling exactly what she was doing at the time. “And the second plane hit, and life changed forever. So, we look back now, 10 years, and we say the same thing: ‘Life has changed forever.’”