(Illustration by Michael Danser)

This weekend, people across the country will pay respect to those lives that were lost, remember the images they saw, remember where they were when they heard and recall how the country came together nine years ago in September when the World Trade Centers came down in New York City.

For the first time on the SMU campus, Project 9/11: Never Forget will be a way for the SMU community to remember collectively today.

Pastor Stephen Broden will be present to deliver the keynote speech at the fountain at noon, while 2,977 small American flags will line the area between the fountain and the flagpole in front of Dallas Hall.

While several other colleges in Texas are participating in this same project, it was senior journalism major Rachel Duke who decided to bring it to SMU after hearing about it at her internship with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C. Duke went to the Meadows School of the Arts, where she was able to get Dean Jose Bowen’s approval for the school to sponsor the event.

The project has received several donations, and one donor has offered to cover all of the back expenses. As Duke had to rush to organize the event, her personal feelings from Sept. 11, 2001 helped her get the project together.

“I saw, along with those who looked on, the devastation of that day depicted in the media and immediately felt deeply for the victims,” she said. “The pain was so real that it affected us as a nation, as a whole.”

While gathering volunteers to place flags and asking a speaker to talk to students may sound easy enough to some, it takes more than a few phone calls to get an event such as this together.

“But I knew all along that it would happen and was meant to be, so I didn’t break a sweat or worry too much,” she said.

While Pastor Stephen Broden is running for Congress in the 30th District–for the seat held by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson–Duke insisted that Broden has agreed that Friday’s talk is not campaign-related.

“It is him, merely as a pastor, simply honoring and praying for those who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks,” Duke said.

There will be a suggested moment of silence at 9:11 a.m. Students can be reminded by the 2,977 small flags (one for each life lost in the attacks), pins and copies of the Constitution.

“The project alone speaks for itself in its name—9/11: Never Forget,” Duke said. “There is no agenda or politics, just a gathering of Americans to honor those who are no longer with us.”