None of the students who assembled in Friday’s 109-degree heat have any memories of Sept. 11, 2001. They were born years after the largest terrorist attack on American soil recontoured global geopolitics.
That didn’t stop Denton High School Key Club members from huddling under a small tent, where they waited to unbox hundreds of miniature American flags and plant them in the drought-hardened soil at the entrance of the high school.
“This has been an annual event, and we wanted to continue to do something here that would be more impactful to continue this tradition,” said Denton High senior Esaú Canales, president of the school’s Key Club.
Canales directed his peers to measure out a square where they would place the flags three inches apart. The heat of the summer left the ground as hard as a brick, so Key Club members used flathead screwdrivers to create a hole for the small wooden dowels.
They worked quickly while considering the massive terrorist attack 22 years earlier.
“When I think of that day, I think about all the people who died trying to get into the towers to help people,” said Trevor Chen, a senior Key Club member.
Julianna LaTouche, a junior Key Club member, said her thoughts drifted toward the people in New York and Manhattan who were left to pick up the pieces.
“I think about the survivors,” she said. “I’m curious about them and how they live with that now.”
Mercedes Todd, a senior Key Club member, said it’s hard to imagine Americans who watched the twin towers fall.
“You think about it as this thing that happened, but it’s hard to put yourself there in that moment when you weren’t there,” she said.
The Key Club, an international service organization for teens that operates under Kiwanis International, has been observing its 9/11 flag project since about 2008, said Denton Breakfast Kiwanis Club member Joe Holland, who serves as the Key Club’s adviser.
“We started this because it was important to bring the students into a community project to share in the memory of that day,” he said.
The annual 9/11 flag commemoration is the club’s first project of the year. Holland said the Denton Breakfast Kiwanis Club meets early enough for Key Club members to attend and still make it to school before the tardy bell. He said students from Denton ISD high school Key Clubs attend.
“They speak at the meetings to tell us what their clubs are doing, and when they do, I have them stand up. This is a great way for them to learn service and leadership,” Holland said.
Canales said the Key Club at Denton High has had about 80 students register, though it’s early yet for the club’s activities.
“The most important thing we do is to do the service and take on leadership,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing now.”
Denton ISD will observe 9/11 across its campuses.
Guyer High School Air Force Junior ROTC cadets will do a stair climb at the school’s track bleachers with audio from the New York Fire Department from Sept. 11 playing, followed by a brief flag ceremony at the baseball field flagpole. Both events happen first thing Monday morning.
Ryan, Denton and Braswell high schools will each have flag raising ceremonies on Monday morning.