Remembrance Day Ceremony In Cashmere Honors Lives Lost Over 25 Years
The 9/11 Spirit of America Memorial Foundation held another respectful ceremony in Cashmere, WA, on Friday, September 11th, 2026, to mark the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks in history on U.S. soil.
This year's ceremony served to remember and honor the 2,977 who died when two hijacked planes struck the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and aboard United Flight 93 that was forced down by the passengers in Shanksville, PA, so that another target would be spared.
The audience at the ceremony was impressive as always and filled with families, first responders, people of all generations, and a large group of children in organized classroom trips.
The 9/11 Spirit of America Memorial Foundation is also charged with the mission to educate, and it was heartwarming to see so many school-aged children listening closely to something that is only history to them and too young to have experienced that day.
As I watched the organized kids' groups sitting politely on the ground in front of the presentation, I thought of how they might absorb what they were hearing from the speakers. I'm 67, and while I have reverence and deep sorrow about Pearl Harbor, I wasn't yet born, so the December 7th, 1941 attack is imprinted on me because of history, but not a lived experience like those of our greatest generation.
Firsthand Accounts of Local First Responders on 9/11
Three keynote speakers with ties to 9/11 and our state spoke about the initial response at the Cashmere ceremony;
Retired Chief A.D. Vickery, a 53-year veteran of the fire service in Seattle, and retired Chief Chris Flores from the Tukwila, WA, fire department, were both deployed to Ground Zero at the World Trade Center to assist and lead hazardous material and urban search and rescue teams, and sadly. the painstaking recovery efforts.
And Gretchen Rehberg, who is a bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, was in New York City studying for the seminary when the towers were struck. Rehber had a background of firefighting and EMS training and volunteered with a hazardous materials team, decontaminating mostly first responders.
Rehberg recalled the eerie feeling she felt when so few of the first responders showed up at the cleaning station she was staffing, because so many had died.
Rehberg reminded the audience the 9/11 attacks are still claiming lives to this day. Estimates are that approximately three times as many people have died from exposure to the toxic mix of chemicals as they performed the search and rescue and in the recovery efforts as were killed in 9/11.
That death toll now exceeds 12,300
Estimates indicate more than 9,400 people have died since 9/11 from toxic exposures, according to the World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
Rehberg was also stricken and underwent a lung transplant as a result of toxic exposure.
While we will never forget those images seared into our memory of the towers falling into a hellish pile of wreckage, many adults who were alive 25 years ago may fail to recall the mounting toll in lives we still experience as a result of September 11, 2001.
We should remember them all: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Shanksville, PA, and all those that have lost their battle with the results of their selfless duty