HALO Foundation sends Akron area students to Flight 93 Memorial for 25th anniversary of 9/11 attacks

Watch the video above chronicling the trip to the Flight 93 Memorial.

Sept. 11, 2001 was a bright, sunny day that became one of the darkest days in American history after four planes were hijacked by terrorists. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day in New York City, Washington, D.C. and in a field near rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

Forty people died on Flight 93, which entered the Greater Cleveland airspace heading to the West Coast before suddenly turning east. Passengers feared their plane could be heading to crash into another governmental site in Washington, so they rallied, overcoming the hijackers before the plane crashed, killing everyone on board. 

An entire generation has been born since 9/11, including the two busloads of students from Akron area schools – Archbishop Hoban High School and St. Sebastian School – who traveled to the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville last week for ceremonies on the 25th anniversary of 9/11.  (See video above and photo gallery below.)

The trip was arranged by the HALO (Hope Always Lives On) Foundation, established by St. Sebastian parishioner Sharon Dietrick.  

“HALO exists to develop students as servant leaders by recognizing specific overlooked needs in the community and illuminating the selfless example of the heroes of Flight 93 as our model,” Dietrick said. She was instrumental in helping to make the Flight 93 Memorial a reality. 

Students and chaperones boarded the buses early on Sept. 11 for the approximately four-hour trip to Shanksville.  

One traveler was Jason Deal, an Archbishop Hoban social studies teacher, who grew up in Western Pennsylvania a little more than an hour from Shanksville. On 9/11, his father, who worked for Pennsylvania Electric, was part of the first response team to come out and help set up temporary lighting and to get electrical service set up, he explained. Deal said at that time, “this was an abandoned strip mine, so there wasn't anything here but this unfortunate tragedy.”  

His father arrived at the site quickly, and the family became concerned when they hadn’t heard from him for a couple of days. “There was uncertainty about everything and fear was spreading. We were very, very concerned that maybe he was part of the incident here,” Deal said.  

He was teaching on 9/11 and said he still remembers his feelings from that day. 

“When the HALO Foundation came to Hoban asking us to consider this and maybe be a part of it, it was a no-brainer to hear the story about how the foundation has been so influential and involved in seeing the development of this memorial and the process of helping the families with everything,” he added.  

“It's just been a phenomenal experience. We got out here this morning, and it's been everything that I thought it might be … Flight 93 has kind of special place in my heart because of the family connection, and then my faith surrounded that and embraced it in a way where you just grow from it and your strength comes from it,” he said. . 

Deal called the trip “a very teachable moment,” noting he lived it in the classroom on 9/11. “It's shocking that suddenly you wake up one day and you realize that an entire generation of kids doesn’t know anything about this other than what you tell them …  So I feel from a faith-based perspective as well as a strong historical perspective, it's important to make these events very clear so they understand, obviously in the hopes of it never happening again, but so they understand the magnitude and the importance and why we have such an amazing memorial here for these brave people.” 

Deal said he is grateful to work in a Catholic school. “It's a challenge that I love and I embrace, taking the historic and blending it with the faith-based, and I couldn't imagine there being any other way to do it.” 

One of the Hoban students, senior Julia Rea, said her involvement with HALO “really changed my faith because it's not just learning about your faith, learning about what Jesus preached, it's actually putting it into practice, being able to say, ‘I am serving the lesser in my community and providing the needs.’” 

She called the trip “incredible, a very moving experience, especially as someone that was not alive for 9/11, to witness the events. It's so powerful to see how it impacted everyone,” Julia said.  

Gavin Redovian, a St. Sebastian seventh grader, described visiting the Flight 93 Memorial as “kind of nerve-wracking … You don't need to have sorrow. You don't need to cry or shed tears to know that this is a truly sad place … But it is for the people that had relatives or friends on Flight 93. It's kind of cool how you can actually meet their family members, and they can tell you their stories, and how they were – aside from being a hero … Most of those people (on Flight 93) were just businessmen, lawyers, doctors, whatever. And they showed that when it matters most, Americans can come together and overcome any challenge,” he added.  

Gavin said hearing the speeches and being able to talk to some victims’ family members and friends such as David and Peggy Jackson Beamer, the parents of Todd Beamer who helped organize the passenger revolt, was powerful. “It’s incredible to hear how they have dealt with their grief.” 

“We are so thankful to know what those 40 people did that morning,” said David Beamer. “I believe they kept that now guided missile (the plane) taken over by our enemies from hitting our nation's capital … We miss Todd every day, but we know that he was a Christian, and he was a Christian long before Sept. 11 … So, we're thankful that this memorial exists, and that so many people came today to remember and honor what those 40 heroes did,” Beamer said. 

“And we're also reminded that we still have to be diligent, prepared and ready to face up to our enemies from wherever they are, both outside and inside. That's the duty that all of us Americans still here still have. Here on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, it was a blessing and it was good to see young people here willing to travel, come spend some of their time to learn about what happened. I told them to take the messages to heart, to be ready. They might well be called upon to serve our country in some way going forward.” 

Julia summed up the experience, calling it “incredible … It's a very moving experience ... It's so powerful to see how it impacted the country. I grew up learning that the biggest sacrifice you can make for someone is laying down your life for them, and the passengers of Flight 93, they literally put down their lives to save Americans.” 

Click here to read a story about Dietrick and Father Norm Douglas’ recent presentation to the First Friday Club of Greater Akron with their reflections of 9/11. More information on the HALO Foundation can be found here