A Day Of Patriotism, A Time To Remember

Debbie Salvesen wore a special shirt Sunday to .

She called it her “our heroes shirt,” a blue T-shirt the created and sold after the attacks to raise money for victims’ families.

As she waited for the ceremony to begin in the crowded theater, the former member of the Army Nurse Corp. Reserves reflected on how the attacks changed her life.

“It probably made me more patriotic,” she said. “It reinforced my belief in what I was doing, just my love of how my country came together, that the terrorists need to be stopped.”

Salvesen had plenty of company in those thoughts — local residents, firefighters, military representatives, veterans and government officials who jammed into the theater to remember those who perished.

The two-hour ceremony, presented by the village, the Arts Commission and the Buffalo Grove Symphonic Band, featured patriotic music, speeches of remembrance and vows that such an attack will never happen again.

“We lost more than 3,000 lives that day,” Congressman Robert Dold (R-10th) reminded the crowd. “The greatest tribute is that we will never forget.”

Recollections of that terrible day a decade ago left lasting impressions on many at the ceremony. (Click on the photos in this gallery for excerpts of the speakers' remarks.)

Related Coverage: VIDEO: Buffalo Grove Sept. 11 Ceremony

Faith Stroder of Palatine said the attacks made her realize how important life can be, and how it can end so suddenly.

“It makes you realize how fragile life is and how the people that we have who are the most important thing we have can be gone in a minute, totally unexpectedly," she said.

“It makes you want to cherish what you have. It makes you cherish what you have.”

She recalled how she spent countless hours in the days after the attacks watching accounts of what happened.

“I was glued in front of the television for three days, hearing those stories and seeing those people, it just…” she said, her voice trailing off.

Becky Leff of Buffalo Grove said she was teaching kindergarten at Quest Academy in Palatine the morning of the attacks.

“I got to school and another teacher said a plane had crashed into the Twin Towers,” she said. “I had assumed it was a little one."

“About a half hour later a secretary came around and told all the teachers that jet planes had crashed and the towers were coming down. There was no way we were talking about it with the kids. When we came home, we were absolutely glued to the television.”