Kim Guadagno was one of a long line of speakers at the annual 'Essex County Remembers' ceremony.
WEST ORANGE -- In front of a packed crowd at the September 11 Memorial at Eagle Rock Reservation Friday morning, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno had a message for family members of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks: New Jersey will not forget you.
"It is our obligation...to make sure that our children don't forget today," she told the group of family members and others who gathered at the annual ceremony overlooking New York's Freedom Tower.
"We commit to have our children remember your lost children."
Guadagno was one of a series of speakers who commemorated the fourteenth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks in an early morning ceremony in Essex County. Each year, 'Essex County Remembers' is held at the reservation, which county officials constructed a memorial in after thousands of people gathered at the spot on September 11, 2001 to watch the events play out across the river.
"Fourteen years ago, there were thousands of people here, and I was standing at the back," County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo said during the ceremony. The memorial, he said "was not only to recognize Essex County, the people that died, the 57; or the state of New Jersey, approximately 700...we honored all 3,000 (victims)."
Speakers at the ceremony Friday recounted stories of where they were on 9/11, and of people they knew who were killed in the attacks, served in the armed forces afterward, or who responded to the World Trade Center in the months after.
They also spoke about what they said was the importance of continuing to tell those stories to keep memories of the victims alive, and the lessons learned from them current.
"Let us make our lives a symbol representative of what so many people gave up that day," Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) told attendees.
"Let's not embroil ourselves in the pettiness of the day...Let's all remember on this day, those things that are important, and those things that are not."
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.