Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Both Malverne and West Hempstead plan to honor community members who died in the Sept. 11 attacks at their annual 9/11 ceremonies on Saturday. The West Hempstead Community Support Association will hold its ceremony at Hall’s Pond Park at 7 p.m., and Malverne’s candlelight ceremony will take place at the 9/11 Memorial on Church Street at 8 p.m.
WHCSA President Maureen Greenberg said that because this year’s ceremony marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks, she plans to emphasize the same resounding message: to never forget.
“I just think that it’s a continual healing for every person that’s lost a loved one,” Greenberg said. “There may have been others lost in these 20 years that aren’t part of the 12 on our 9/11 Memorial, that we’re unaware of. Our hearts go out to all of them.”
Community groups including West Hempstead Boy Scout Troop 240, West Hempstead/Franklin Square Girl Scout Service Unit Troop 1389 and the Lakeview and West Hempstead fire departments are expected to take part in the ceremony. It will also feature a bagpipe player, a first for West Hempstead.
“For us, it’s just important to keep consistency in our community’s traditions,” said Greenberg, who has coordinated the ceremony since last year.
She vividly remembers where she was during the attacks. Then a senior buyer for Fotrunoff working in Uniondale, Greenberg recalled all of her coworkers gathering around a TV in a hallway after the first plane flew into the north tower.
“I had a daughter in elementary school at the time,” Greenberg said. “At some point later that morning, I went home, but they wouldn’t let them out of school until school was over, because they wanted to keep students safe until dismissal time.”
While there were several other tragedies in her lifetime that she was too young to remember, Greenberg said, every generation seems to have a defining disaster. “Unfortunately,” she said, “we all have a time in our life where it seems something tragic happens, and we remember where we all were.”
Greenberg said she hoped the ceremony would help educate those who were born after the attacks. Having the boy and girl scouts take part, she added, would help them understand the significance of that day.
“I think it’s important that history doesn’t ever get erased, no matter what,” she said. “Some people can take offense to that, but we need to learn from what has happened. They need to be aware, because if there isn’t an awareness of what happened, how do we correct the future?”
Malverne’s police and Fire Department and its Volunteer Ambulance Corps will be among the groups taking part in the village’s annual candlelight ceremony. It will be broadcast on Malverne TV, and is also expected to feature local elected officials.
“I know the Malverne residents will come out like they always do when we’re there to recognize the families affected by 9/11,” said Mayor Keith Corbett.
Village Historian David Weinstein, who in 2001 was a volunteer firefighter with the Malverne department, recalled the eerie feeling he had watching the fighter jets soar over the firehouse on Broadway Avenue. But he also remembered the selflessness of residents who were willing to help. Village leaders had established a fund in which residents could donate to the four families of residents who died on Sept. 11.
“As in any crisis or emergency, our Malvernites always come through,” Weinstein said. “Malverne residents called our police and fire departments [to] ask how they could help and what they could do. We will never forget the Malvernites we lost that day.”
