Various Hudson County and North Bergen officials gathered at James J. Braddock Park for their annual 9/11 remembrance ceremony, recognizing the families of the township residents who died in the tragedy. Sponsored content.
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North Bergen Superintendent of Schools Dr. George Solter began by noting his personal relationships with two of the four township residents who died as a result of the terrorist attack.
“Sal Tieri and I were students together, we graduated high school together, and I was a football coach for Christopher Amoroso: so there’s personal relationships that I have in this remembrance,” Solter explained.
“As superintendent of schools, we have the job of making sure our children, our students, do not forget this ever happened.”
Noting how September 11, 2001 was a sunny day with clear skies – much like today – Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise also said we need to keep the memory of this day alive for our children.
Hudson County Sheriff Frank Schillari, an undersheriff in 2001, recalled being tasked with helping remove dead bodies from the Jersey City waterfront on that fateful day.
“We were called to assist in bringing the bodies in from the waterfront in Jersey City, so for me, I lost many friends in the Port Authority police, the superintendent, and we’ll just never forget: it’s a very sad day,” remarked Schillari.
State Senator (D-32)/North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco thanked the families of the deceased for being a part of the ceremony before recognizing those who died on 9/11, also recalling his experience when he visited New York City in the immediate aftermath of the chaos.
“I talked about the trees, the trees that were frozen in time with people’s personal belongings: bags from different stores, plastic bags, papers from people’s desks … if it you touch it they fell apart because of the heat that they underwent on that time,” Sacco recalled.
“Then we had to piece together who we lost. Chris I knew personally, he was one of my son’s coaches, and a very, very good person. And we still have his photo, his last photo, helping a woman outside the towers.”
Amoroso’s final moments were depicted in the 2006 drama World Trade Center, which received generally favorable reviews from critics.
After a moment of silence, the families of Amoroso, Tieri, Robert Cirri and David LaMagne all received a prayer from Father Yuvan Alvarez.
Board of Chosen Freeholders Chairman Anthony Vainieri (D-8), who served as the emcee for the event, reiterated why educating youth about 9/11 is so important.
“The generations coming forward have to realize what happened and why it happened. Sometimes today we even ask ourselves why it happened,” said Vainieri.
“As we went to school, we learned about the previous wars: the Korean War, the Vietnam War, World War II, World War I – we learned that in history. This is in the history books now.”
