9/11 Spirit of America Memorial
The Annual ceremony is held at the Memorial Site at Riverside Park on Sept. 11 at 11:00 a.m.
The 2026 event offers a chance to meet the speakers afterward and a hot dog lunch to serve those who can stay after the ceremony.
This year, being the 25th anniversary of the event and we have 3 local people who were in action on site that day, we wanted to honor them all and hear their stories.
- Chief A.D. Vickery was a fireman with Seattle when he deployed to New York on 9/11/01 as Task Force Leader with Washington State Rescue to assist responders at the World Trade Center.
- Chief Chris Flores was a fireman with Tukwila and deployed to New York to assist with recovery operations on 9/11/01. Bishop Gretchen Rehberg was in NY City on 9/11/01 where she volunteered as a firefighter and hazmat worker providing first aid to survivors and later helping with clean-up. She later finished college with a doctorate in organic chemistry and taught college. Then she returned to college to earn a degree in theology/ministry and worked her way up through service to become the Bishop of the Spokane Espiscopal diocese which serves Cashmere.
- Chris Ward, a retired Lacey police commander will provide music and Fire Chief Brian Brett will be our master of ceremonies.
