About 2,600 km separate Flin Flon from New York City.
But on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, there was a certain oneness between the two communities.
This Sunday marks the 15th anniversary of 9/11, a time to reflect not only on the carnage of that day, but also on the compassion displayed around the world.
Flin Flon area residents reacted to the terror attacks with shock and anger, but also by extending their hands in support and prayer.
A Sept. 13, 2001 Reminder article detailed how 10 or so people had called or stopped by Flin Flon General Hospital with an offer to donate blood. At the time there were fears that transfusions for 9/11 victims would leave the Northern American blood supply deficient.
The late Shirley Siemens, a Flin Flon resident, was among the would-be donors turned away because the hospital no longer accepted blood donations.
“I’m sure there are a lot of people in the community looking for a way to give any help they can,” she said at the time. “Seeing as how we are so far away from the incident, I feel like driving down to the US border and saying, ‘Put me where you want me to help out.’ I guess all we can do is pray for those people.”
And pray they did. The evening of Sept. 11, 2001, officials with Flin Flon’s Anglican Parish of St. Peter and St. James planned a community prayer service for the following day, Sept. 12. About 20 people of different ages and faiths turned out.
Flin Flon city council met for the first time following the attacks on
Sept. 18, 2001. Then-councillor and current mayor Cal Huntley was among those who offered council’s condolences to the victims.
Huntley also wondered whether an increased onus on airport security might put the Flin Flon airport at risk.
“We’ll have to keep our eyes on this situation,” he said at the time.
Several months after the attacks, the Flin Flon Oddfellows and Rebekah lodges dedicated a bridge over Ross Creek to the memory of the victims.
Members had been fixing up the bridge the day of the attacks. They quickly agreed to christen it the Bridge of Hope, though it was removed years later due to safety concerns.
Elsewhere, former Flin Flonner Cheryl Redmond, a Pittsburgh resident and avid quilter, stitched together five memorial quilts honouring the men, women and children who lost their lives on 9/11. One of her quilts would spend time on display at Washington’s famed Smithsonian Institute.
Flin Flon’s Crystal Kolt was on a cruise ship that passed by Ground Zero, the name given to the former site of the Twin Towers, in the spring of 2002. She was among 20-plus members of the Flin Flon Community Choir who had just performed at
New York’s famed Carnegie Hall.
“It was a profound moment,” Kolt said, recalling the tower-less skyline.
Another chorister on the cruise was Graham Craig, a one-time Flin Flon mayor.
“The shock of actually seeing what we had heard about, and what we had understood had actually happened, was almost unbelievable,” he recalls today.
Some local connections to 9/11 could not be confirmed, including rumours of a grandmother who baked cookies to send to the New York City Fire Dept.
Given Flin Flon and area’s legendary compassion, such rumours seem plausible. As a Reminder editorial on the 9/11 attacks once noted, our caring knows no borders.
New York terror hit home for publisher
Reminder publisher Valerie Durnin lived in New York City for 11 years, until 1999. On 9/11, she was a copy editor at BC’s
Powell River Peak.
When Durnin arrived at work that morning, she and her coworkers rewrote the paper that was going to press that day, in order to cover the events in New York. She wrote an opinion piece for that paper, excerpted below:
What happened today in New York is unbelievable, indescribable. It is especially poignant for me because, until three years ago, I worked at the Woolworth building, which is only two blocks from the World Trade Centre.
All morning I have been inundated by memories of places that I used to walk, that I know well.
I selfishly hope that none of my friends were there this morning, though the odds are against it.
I will start calling friends in New York tomorrow, as I am sure that I will not get through today. I will tell them how much I cherish them. I hope that I will be able to tell them, and not have to mourn.
But I mourn, anyway. For the people and places I know and love. For a world that did not have these terrible, violent acts to stain its beauty. For the peace that is gone, at least for now.
