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Volunteers place 2,977 American flags on the grounds of American Red Cross on Delaware Avenue at Summer Street on September 6. Photo: Nancy J. Parisi
Volunteers place 2,977 American flags on the grounds of American Red Cross on Delaware Avenue at Summer Street on September 6. Photo: Nancy J. Parisi

Memorial Flags

by / Sep. 7, 2015 10pm EST

Small American flags were placed, as has been local tradition since 2004, to memorialize each of the 2,977 citizens killed in the three terrorist plane crashes of 9/11/01 in Manhattan, Shanksville, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. The practice of placement of flags was spearheaded by Mark Multerer and Kathy Multerer, as they and a few of their friends lost relatives in World Trade Center on 9/11. “This is the most volunteers that we’ve ever had,” says Mark, “we started at 11:00 a.m. and it takes us a couple of hours to place all of the flags. They will remain here until the weekend after 9/11.” Near the poignant display of flags, and the Red Cross driveway, is a signboard entitled “Western New York Connection” displaying the names and photographs of twenty-six born or living in the region who perished that day. Several passersby stopped to watch the intricate process of placing nearly three thousand flags on wooden sticks: measuring equidistant rows, drilling holes where the soil is dry, and gentle tamping of flags. Among the volunteers was Amanda Vallone, Red Cross senior disaster program manager, student Owen Nelson (both pictured) and Don Nelson.

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