The 788 students of Idlewild Elementary School held a special program today to honor the victims and heroes of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Honored guests included members of the U.S. military, firefighters and police officers. The east Charlotte school is a k-5 magnate for gifted students.
Principal Jane Collins said many of her students had not been born when terrorists hijacked commercial planes and flew them into the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Virginia and crashed a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania.
More than 3,000 people perished that day, including scores of New York firefighters and police officers who had responded to the Trade Center attack.
“We wanted to remember the victims and the heroes who died that day,” Collins told Qcitymetro.com.
Each grade at the school honored a different group:
Kindergarten – firefighters
First grade – police officers
Second grade – victims on the hijacked planes
Third grade – families who lost loved one
Fourth grade – volunteer agencies
Fifth grade – U.S. military
The students also were asked to bring in at least 50 cents to benefit Crop Walk, a hunger-awareness group.
Editor’s Note: See more photos from the Idlewild Elementary event on our homepage photo gallery.
