BIDDEFORD — It was a moving ceremony. One hand goes up in a slow salute, then slowly the hand moves down and both hands together are extended out, palms up, to accept a folded American flag, that person turns to another and the process is repeated 10 times, when the flag is handed off for the final time and raised.

This flag ceremony isn’t done for the usual veteran’s holidays, said AMVETS member and veteran Gene Foster of Arundel. It’s sometimes performed at military funerals, he said.

He said he chose this particular flag ceremony for the Sunday morning gathering at the Veterans Memorial Park in Biddeford in remembrance of 9/11 because after that event 10 years ago the flag began showing up everywhere, “galvanizing the American spirit.”

On Sunday, first responders, veterans, local dignitaries and other residents of Biddeford, Saco and the surrounding area gathered to remember the tragic of events of Sept. 11, 2001.

That was the day that terrorists, some leaving from the Portland International Jetport, flew two planes, one into each of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. Another plane was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while a third was diverted from its target, taken down by the passengers.

Thousands were killed that day, and most Americans who were adults at the time will never forget where they were or what they were doing when they learned of the attacks.

State Sen. Barry Hobbins, D-Saco, said he was finishing up with a client when first one, then another plane hit the twin towers. When his client left, “I had to rush to court.” But, he said, shortly after he arrived, “they shut down the whole court system.”

State Rep. Linda Valentino, D-Saco, said she was at work when she heard the news and was glued to the television in her office’s conference room.

“I watched from the very beginning. I was watching when people were jumping out of the building. I was shell-shocked for two weeks afterward,” she said.

Biddeford Mayor Joanne Twomey said she was home, and when she heard the news she called her children.

“I called my children to tell them I loved them because I didn’t know how much more was going to happen,” she said.

Although the events of that day are vivid for many, today’s children, like as 8-year-old Elona Bodwell, weren’t even born. Elona was one of the few children who attended Sunday’s event.

Elona and many other young people don’t know much about 9/11 or understand the ramifications it has had on American life. She has no memory of the plane crashes, no memory of a world when going through airport security was a relatively effortless undertaking; before the U.S. military intervened in Iraq and Afghanistan in an effort to root out terrorism; and before the Patriot Act gave greater reign to government agencies.

Biddeford resident Tammy Ackerman, partner of Elona’s father, Joshua Bodwell, said she felt it was important to bring Elona to the ceremony so she could learn about this important event in America’s recent history.

“Our children are not being engaged in these types of events,” said Ackerman. They should be, she said, because the older veterans who usually organize these events are dying off.

“It’s important to be able to teach the kids what really happened,” said City Councilor Bob Mills, who also attended Sunday’s ceremony.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.