Hardeman Co. community vows to always remember 9/11

HARDEMAN COUNTY, Tenn. — September 11, 2001… a date many of us will never forget. Fifteen years later hundreds in Hardeman County gathered for a special memorial and prayer service commemorating the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of the world trade center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, VA.

Through song and prayer, the thousands of Americans who lost their life on September 11, 2001 were honored in Hardeman County.

“This is a day we never want to forget Hardeman County, city of Bolivar,” Eddie Kessler of Grace Pointe Church said. “All groups, all genders, all races, all nationalities, all denominations to come together to remember this day.”

The Tennessee Firemen’s Association’s Chaplain Rex Humphrey says Sunday’s ceremony was a good time to do three things: pause, pray and reflect.

“Tonight as America comes together in this small town, in this community, we have once again paused for this momentous occasion,” Chaplain Rex Humphrey said.

Although tonight was about remembering the lives forever changed by 9/11, for many it was time to emphasize prayer in the community.

“People in New York or else where that we don’t know, we feel them, participant Matt Boatwright said. “We know they are alive, we know they are hurting and have pain. We want to lift them up so it is very religious based.”

For others, it was just good to see the community unified, which they say gives them hope for a better tomorrow.

“And it’s a great blessing to be a part of something of this caliber,” participant Fred Spight said. “That the community could come together through out of everything that is actually going on in the world.”

After the ceremony there was a time for prayer offered to those in attendance. Cry out America Hardeman County and the Bolivar Fire Department sponsored Sunday’s event.