Residents from across Belmont gathered at Town Hall Friday morning to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
On that date in 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial planes, two of which departed from Logan International Airport in Boston, and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., and a field near Shanksville, Penn., killing thousands.
Friday morning, following a moment of silence for the victims—which included three Belmont residents: Paul Friedman, 45, Edward Hennessy, 35, and Carlos Alberto Montoya, 36, as well as Lisa Gordenstein, 41, and John Katsimatides, 31, who had loved ones in Belmont—more than a dozen speakers shared their memories of that day 25 years ago.
The ceremony concluded with the placement of flowers at a memorial tree outside the school administration building.
Joanna Tzouvelis opened the ceremony Friday with a moment of silence for the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, which included three Belmont residents. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Select Board Chair Taylor Yates shared a message to future generations: No corner of the world is irrelevant. No cause is just enough to justify cruelty. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Anne Marie Mahoney was a member of the Select Board in 2001. Mahoney told guests at the ceremony Friday morning that she knew where she was the days President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. She never expected to add a new date to that list: Sept. 11, 2001. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Police Chief Shane Smith was sitting in a class at University of Massachusetts, Lowell when another student informed him a plane had hit the World Trade Center. He assumed at first that it must have been an accident. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
On Sept. 11, 2001, Superintendent Jill Geiser was teaching at a college in Thailand. It was around 10 p.m. when she went to the school’s office to watch the news, as she didn’t have a TV of her own. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
In the years after 9/11, Veteran’s Agent Robert Upton managed and prepared family members of soldiers facing military deployments, a job that felt like being called back to active duty for the recently retired chief of Non-Commissioned Officer of Family Programs in the Massachusetts Army National Guard. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Mel Kleckner was town administrator in Belmont at the time. He remembers receiving a call from then-Fire Chief William Osterhaus about an “incident” at the World Trade Center. He turned on the TV to see the news, and quickly understood it to be a coordinated attack on the United States. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Joanna Tzouvelis recalled the “clear blue sky” and perfect weather on the day of the terrorist attacks in 2001. She remembered trying to call her cousin, John, who worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, but was unable to reach him, as the call wouldn’t go through. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Veteran Bill Magsam recalls where he was on Sept. 11, 2001. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Rayna Thomas, a Belmont High School senior, performed the song, Hallelujah, to close out the ceremony Friday morning. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Historical Society President and Town Meeting member Allison Lenk lays a flower at the base of a memorial tree located at the intersection of Moore and Pleasant streets. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Lisa Gibalerio places a white rose at the base of the 9/11 memorial tree. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Nan Donald and Nancy Shilepsky place flowers at the 9/11 memorial tree. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice) 
Superintendent Jill Geiser and Select Board Chair Taylor Yates place flowers at the memorial tree. (Mary Byrne/Belmont Voice)
