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Firefighters save annual 9/11 Tribute in Light
New York City’s first responders are teaming up to save the annual Tribute in Light after the event was canceled Thursday due to the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK - Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the annual "Tribute in Light" display honoring victims of 9/11 is back on, saying New York health officials will supervise this year's tribute to ensure workers' safety amid concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This year it is especially important that we all appreciate and commemorate 9/11, the lives lost and the heroism displayed as New Yorkers are once again called upon to face a common enemy,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
The announcement came days after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum canceled the Tribute in Light over concerns the coronavirus might spread among crews creating twin columns of light to represent the World Trade Center in the Manhattan sky.
"With gratitude to our Chairman Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, we will be moving forward with Tribute in Light to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks," the museum said in a statement on their website.
Alice Greenwald, president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, thanked former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Cuomo and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation “for their assistance in offsetting the increased costs associated with the health and safety considerations around the tribute this year."
“This year, its message of hope, endurance and resilience are more important than ever,” Greenwald said in a statement.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation recently decided to hold an alternative 9/11 Never Forget ceremony after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum announced family members won’t read the names of the nearly 3,000 victims this year because of the pandemic.
The foundation’s tribute will be held just south of the memorial plaza and relatives will read the victims’ names, with mask-wearing enforced and podiums being sanitized after each speaker.
Held for the first time in 2002, the lights have been shining annually on Sept. 11 every year since 2003.
With the Associated Press.