2025 911 Memorial Ride
Larry P Wasser | Published on 9/12/2025
Ride – Honoring Those Who Served 
Thursday, September 11, 2025
This year marked the 24th Anniversary of 9/11 (September 11, 2001).
At 8:46 AM Eastern Standard Time, Americans were shocked to hear or see
American Airlines flight 11 crash into the south tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 AM United flight 175 crashed into the north tower. The death toll at the Trade Center totaled 2606. At 9:37 AM American flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, taking another 184 lives. At 10:03 AM United flight 93 went down in a farm field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where 56 passengers and 9 crew did not survive. September 11 can never be forgotten.
A ride of remembrance to honor those who served and sacrificed for our country departed from Fort Hunter. It attracted thirty-five riders, many dressed in red, white, and blue. They were joined by three Harrisburg and one Susquehanna Township Bike Police officers, and police cars from both municipalities escorted the cyclists. An invaluable service to keep us safe in traffic and at intersections.
At the ride’s first stop HACC President Dr. John J. “Ski” Sygielski welcomed the riders with a poignant speech before HACC’s 911 Memorial. The centerpiece of the memorial is a 12’ x 4’ steel beam recovered from the rubble of the Twin Towers. It sits behind the Senator John J. Shoemaker Public Safety Center on the HACC campus at gate 5 on Industrial Park Road. If you have not visited this, you are missing a very important part of our Harrisburg history. Pennsylvania Task Force One, an urban search and rescue team, among the first responders deployed to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Many of these heroes are graduates and are former or current HACC employees.
Those assembled pledged Allegiance to our flag flying at half-staff, then took a moment of silence, and placed 24 American flags in the structure’s river rock.
The ride continued to several memorials on Riverfront Park on the Capital Area Greenbelt: the First World War Memorial “Lest we Forget” , the Fireman Monument, Holocaust Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans and Harrisburg POW Memorial. The riders then pedaled across the river to the American Legion PA State Headquarters in Wormleysburg. Troy Michaels, Assistant Adjutant of the Pennsylvania Legion, spoke about the statues in front of their headquarters honoring every branch of the military service, as well as a statue honoring female veterans. He took the time to acknowledge the veterans participating in the ride.
Thank you to the HBC members, HBG Crew, Recycle Bicycle Harrisburg, and other volunteers for supporting this ride.
We returned to Fort Hunter … already thinking about next year’s 25th Anniversary.
We need to teach our history to future generations ... a paragraph in a History Book is not enough.
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2025 911 Memorial Ride