Community Corner

'Red Bank Will Always Remember' Lives Lost on 9/11

Elks sponsor 11th annual commemoration at Riverside Gardens Park

Members of the community gathered at Tuesday night, echoing the scene 11 years earlier when residents crowded the Navesink in horror while smoke billowed on the horizon as the Twin Towers fell.

Red Bank lost two of its own, Mark Hemschoot, 45, and Brendan Lang, 30, in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Residents have gathered at the park each year since the tragedy to ensure no one ever forgets Red Bank's own as well as all those who died in Manhattan and Pennsylvania.

"Whether the crowd is large or small, we in Red Bank will always remember," Mayor Pat Menna said at the gathering sponsored by Elks Lodge 233. 

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"It's a commemoration of lives well-lived," the mayor said. "Their spirit continues."

Elks, Menna and singers with the Chorus of the Atlantic held the commemoration in front of the township's memorial, nestled amid flowers at the riverfront park. 

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"As Americans, it is just and appropriate that we gather here today in this beautiful setting to focus our attention and thoughts on the events of Sept. 11, 2001. As we think back to that day and those days immediately following, it brings back the full and stark reality of a time and of places that will never be forgotten by all those who lived through that dark day and the days that followed," said Ginny Maio, Elks' exalted ruler.

"As long as the Elks are here, as long as Red Bank is here... we will take time to remember the sacrifices," Menna said.

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