(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz are inviting members of the public to attend the State of Connecticut’s annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony, honoring and celebrating the lives of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
This year’s ceremony will be held on Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. Family members of those who were killed in the attacks will participate, and the names of the 161 victims with ties to Connecticut will be read aloud.
Every year, the state purposefully holds its ceremony on a day prior to the actual anniversary in order to accommodate the family members and friends of the victims. Because Connecticut is in such close proximity to New York City, many people from the state who lost loved ones in the attacks also attend the annual ceremony that is held on September 11 at the site of the World Trade Center.
Connecticut’s official memorial honoring the victims of the attacks is located on a peninsula at the state park, where on a clear day the Manhattan skyline can be viewed across Long Island Sound. It features a memorial engraved with the names of the people with ties to Connecticut who were killed in the attacks. The state park was chosen as the site for the memorial because it is the location where, in the hours immediately following the attacks, many people gathered to observe the devastation on Lower Manhattan from across Long Island Sound. In addition, the site was used by the Connecticut National Guard as a staging area for Connecticut’s relief efforts to New York City in the following days.