It’s unlikely you need a reminder of the significance of tomorrow’s date. But if your Friday plans don’t include reflection on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, many places in Illinois are designed for that purpose year-round.
Many such sites have actual Ground Zero artifacts, which the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey made available to communities nationwide. The National 9/11 Memorial keeps a list of official sites at registries.911memorial.org, currently detailing 18 permanent memorials in Illinois.
Of those, 11 are tagged as incorporating steel from the World Trade Center: Highwood City Hall, fire stations in Coal City, Darien, Frankfort and Holiday Shores and parks in Dixon, Naperville, Rockford and Wauconda. The 11th is in Belleville, a park-like setting on the front lawn of the Fire Department Administrative Office and Engine House 4.
Formally named the September 11 Memorial Walkway of Southern Illinois, the installation includes a 350-foot path incorporating 10 plaques chronicling events of the day and a steel column exceeding 32 feet and 7,100 pounds, supported by concrete columns symbolizing the two World Trade Center towers, all installed on a pentagon-shaped plaza. There also is a Survivor Tree Seedling – a plant traced to a Callery pear found during recovery efforts that was revived and installed at the 9/11 Memorial in New York.
This anniversary year includes several special one-time events, such as a Memorial Climb at the University of Illinois football stadium in Champaign. The school reports the southeast and southwest gates will open at 6:30 a.m., with the climb starting about “7:46 a.m., to coincide with the timing of events on that fateful morning. Like the brave first responders in New York City, participants will climb the equivalent of the 110 stories of the World Trade Center. At the same time, the new videoboard will show video and news footage captured from that morning.”
That will lead into remarks from Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, who was general manager of New York’s WCBS-TV in 2001. Register to participate or spectate at tinyurl.com/UIUCclimb.
Southern Illinois University hosts a similar event each year through its Air Force and Army ROTC cadets. Participants should plan to arrive by 5:45 a.m. In addition to a climb at the Banterra Center, the event includes a 2-mile walk around the concourse representing the evacuation from Ground Zero across the Brooklyn Bridge. Register at universityevents.siu.edu/saluki-stair-climb.
There are countless opportunities for public participation and personal reflection. Specific to the Shaw readership area, we’ve collected relevant posts at shawlocal.com/tags/9-11. For an international event, 9/11 remembrance tends to be deeply personal. There’s no rule about siloing thoughts into one specific timeframe, but the 25th anniversary may be the most widely observed until 2051.
• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.
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September 10, 2026 at 10:01AM
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