(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz today announced that the State of Connecticut’s 19th annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony, honoring and celebrating the lives of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 10, 2020, at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. Family members of those who were killed in the attacks will participate, and the names of the 161 victims with ties to Connecticut will be read aloud.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the need to socially distance, anyone who attends will be required to wear face coverings and keep at least a six-foot distance from others. Arrangements will be made to ensure that attendees have space to spread out.
The State of Connecticut’s official memorial honoring the victims of the 9/11 attacks is located on a peninsula at the state park, where on a clear day the Manhattan skyline can be viewed across Long Island Sound. It features a memorial engraved with the names of the people with ties to Connecticut who lost their lives. In the months following the attacks, the state park was chosen as the site for the memorial because it is the location in its immediate aftermath where many people gathered to observe the devastation on Lower Manhattan across the Sound. The site was also used by the Connecticut National Guard as a staging area for Connecticut’s relief efforts to New York City in the days immediately following the attacks.
Every year, the State of Connecticut holds its memorial ceremony on a day prior to the actual anniversary in order to accommodate the schedules of the family members and friends of the victims, many of whom live in the state and would like to attend both Connecticut’s ceremony and the annual service that is held in New York City on September 11.