September 11, 2026. Twenty-five years later, but the picture-perfect blue skies over Blairstown were the same as anyone who was there that day can remember.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Blair community gathered Friday morning on Maine Terrace to honor the lives lost on that fateful day and in the aftermath and to consider what it means to carry the lessons of September 11 forward into a better tomorrow.

Associate Head of School Ryan M. Pagotto ’97 welcomed students, faculty and staff to the ceremony, which featured reflections from Ryan Fish ’28 and history department chair Jason Beck. 

“For many here this morning, September 11 is something learned about on social media or in history class because we were born years after that tragic day in 2001,” Ryan said. “For my family, it’s personal.”

Ryan shared with the crowd overlooking Hardwick Quad that his family lost a member who was a New York City Fire Department chaplain responding to the North Tower, while another family member was working at the Pentagon when it was attacked.

To honor the 2,977 people lost in the attacks, Ryan created an American flag from 2,977 dried flowers gathered from the three sites targeted on September 11, 2001: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“I wanted to create something that honors those who lost their lives and will help ensure that their stories and sacrifices are remembered by us,” he explained.

His message to his fellow students was that they do not need to have personally witnessed September 11 for its history and significance to belong to their generation.

“Understanding 9/11 becomes meaningful when we understand the people who made sacrifices to save others, everyday heroes who shaped the world we inherited with selfless acts of care and the choices they made to find the good and be the good,” he said, connecting those choices to Blair’s principles, the Five Fundamentals.

Mr. Beck built on that idea, asking the community to consider not only how history is remembered but also what people choose to do with its lessons. The challenge of the anniversary, Mr. Beck explained, is ensuring that remembrance does not become simply a ritual observed once a year before everyone returns to their daily lives.

He recalled that 25 years earlier, Blair’s hilltop was much like it was Friday morning—beautiful and full of promise for a new school year. Then, the course of the day and the world changed forever. While honoring the lives lost and the heroism displayed on September 11 and in the months that followed, Mr. Beck challenged the Blair community to do more than simply remember.

“We have the responsibility to properly dedicate ourselves to that memory by not just remembering, but by living lives that repudiate the hatreds…that underlie September 11, 2001.”

At the end of Mr. Beck’s remarks, Ella Willoughby ’27, Nicole Richter ’27, Kellen Nelson ’27 and Salah Tsarni ’27, all of whom have committed to U.S. service academies, raised the flag to half-mast. Before returning to the class day, Aanya Hemady ’27 and Penny Wardwell ’27 sang the National Anthem, and their voices filled the campus with reflection and promise for a better tomorrow.