The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is hosting its Community Day of Remembrance with exhibits form the 9/11 memorial on display throughout the weekend. Outside, the Boy Scouts pay their respects to all who died in the terror attacks.
“Second line…attention!”
“I’m calling out the commands”
“Right-hand…salute!”
“Making sure that there will always be someone saluting the flag.”
“First line, too.”
Jenison’s Christopher Beauchene serves in the President Ford Council of Boy Scouts of America.
This is the 14 Annual day-long Scout Salute. It began at 7:18, sunrise. At the entrance of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, the Stars and Stripes, half-staff, flutters in a cool, late summer breeze.
“We’re the only council right now in the nation that’s been continually doing this since 2002. I’m Randy Ringquist and I’m an Assistant Council Commissioner.
“All lines advance!”
“A lot of the boys really don’t necessarily understand a lot of it so this is one way we try to keep remembrance of what happened.”
“Forward, March!”
As a 17-year old, Beauchene was toddler when terrorists attacked in 2001. I ask him what he remembers.
“Um, a little. I remember my parents being really freaked out and not knowing why. And I remember probably a year or two later the magnitude of what happened finally being understood and being really shocked.”
And today what does Beauchene think about as he salutes?
“Today I think about the sacrifice that all those first responders made. I think about the bravery and the courage of everyone that went into those buildings not sure whether or not they’d come out. And I think about the respect that all the people who come here bring to pay tribute to those that gave their lives so that another may live.”
Throughout the day hundreds of Scouts, just like Beauchene, will salute and reflect in silence until the sun sets.
Patrick Center, WGVU News.