Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that took the lives of over 3,000 Americans in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, and the Kiwanis Club of Marietta is not letting the day pass by without remembering the victims.
According to the Marietta Daily Journal, the group plans to host its fourth Field of Flags event in downtown Marietta this weekend, designed to honor the men and women killed on September 11, 2001, with a concert, flag parade, and memorial service.
The weekend-long event begins Friday evening, as the town’s first ever “Freedom Concert” will be held in the square from 8 to 10 p.m. The concert will feature local act The Time Bandits and is free of charge.
Festivities will continue Saturday morning as a procession is set to march from Grace Community Church in Marietta to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. The parade will start at 10 a.m., though anyone wishing to march is asked to arrive by 9:30 a.m.
Marchers will carry one of 3,000 individual American flags in honor of the victims of the attacks and plant them in an open field at the battlefield.
On 8 a.m. Sunday, the event will conclude with a ceremony to be held at Kennesaw Mountain. The service will feature guest speakers Senator Johnny Isakson, former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, and Marianne Burke, sister of 9/11 victim Katherine McGarry Noack.
A list of the names of those who perished in the attacks will be read.
The Field of Flags event has not been held since 2011, when the Marietta Kiwanis Club decided to begin hosting the event every five years as opposed to annually.
“I think we don’t want it to become so routine that it’s just another holiday — it’s a memorial,” said Field of Flags co-chair Jim Mallard.
