Grafton-Stovall Theatre to host 9/11 commemorative event tonight
By Victoria Shelor, contributing writer
Posted on September 11, 2006

A memorial for the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 will be held tonight at 7 p.m. in Grafton-Stovall Theatre.
 
Organized by the undergraduate fellows of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the event will honor those killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon five years ago. It will feature a moment of silence for the four planes that struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and crashed in Pennsylvania. There will also be a candlelight vigil and several speakers.

Senior Michael Dreyfuss has been organizing the event since he received the FDD fellowship last May. 

“The speeches are partly geared to the fact that terrorism is still a threat and we need continued vigilance,” Dreyfuss said. “It’s not so much a political objective, but more so a time for remembrance.”

Captain Roberta Lavin of the United States Public Health Service will deliver a speech on the importance of national preparedness in emergency situations such as terrorist attacks.

Lavin will be discussing what students can do in various emergency situations.  “If you really want to help your university be prepared, push to have every student trained in first aid,” she said. “9/11 was a wake up call for America and the world.  There are people who spend their day plotting terrorist acts.  Every threat that is taken off the table makes us safer.”

The Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness, of which Lavin is chief of staff for, has worked to improve emergency preparedness since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Senior Samier Mansur, one of last year’s FDD undergraduate fellows, will also deliver a speech.  Mansur is also president of the Muslim Student Association.