Video summary
On Thursday, September 10th, Big Sandy Community and Technical College hosted its annual September 11th memorial service at the Pikeville campus to honor the victims of that historic tragedy. The event brought together local first responders, members of the Pike Central High School band, and JROTC students who gathered to pay their respects and reflect on the profound impact of the attacks. Major Steve Mazencki, a JROTC instructor, shared his perspective on the ceremony, describing the program as fantastic and expressing deep gratitude that the college was taking the initiative to organize such a meaningful tribute.
A central theme of the memorial was the symbolic raising and lowering of the flag to half-mast in memory of those who perished, not only at the World Trade Center but across the nation. Major Mazencki emphasized the critical importance of actively commemorating this event, noting that many of his students were not born when the attacks occurred. He warned that without a deliberate effort to remember and teach about this history, the vital lessons could be lost, potentially leaving society vulnerable to repeating such tragedies in the future.
For the JROTC participants, involvement in the memorial was viewed as a direct expression of their mission to cultivate better citizens through service. Major Mazencki explained that their primary goal is to improve young people by engaging them in three key areas: service to their school, service to their local community, and service to their country. By participating in the ceremony, the students honored both their community and their nation, reinforcing the values of unity and remembrance that define the spirit of the event.
The memorial concluded with a strong sense of purpose and community solidarity, underscoring the enduring legacy of September 11th. Reporting for Mountain Top News, Nick Collum captured the essence of the day, highlighting how the college and local partners came together to ensure that the memory of the fallen remains alive for future generations. Through this annual gathering, the event successfully bridged the gap between historical events and current civic duty, ensuring that the story of 9/11 continues to inspire reflection and action within the region.
Read the full video transcript
On Thursday, September 10th, Big Sandy
Community and Technical College hosted
its annual 9/11 memorial event on the
Pikeville campus. Local first
responders, along with Pike Central High
School's band and JROTC students,
attended to pay respects and emphasize
the impact of that historic day. Pike
Central JROTC instructor, Major Steve
Mazencki, tells us more about what the
event means to him.
>> I thought the program was fantastic. I I
think, you know, we had the combination
of uh raising the flag uh and the
lowering it to half-mast in um memory of
those that perished in 9/11, not just at
the World Trade Center, but I'm so glad
that the college is doing that uh
because uh like the speaker said
earlier, uh Mr. Johnson, who was our
band director at Pike Central,
um
none of my students here were born at
the time this occurred, you know. Uh and
so, unless we actually make an effort to
commemorate and remember
uh this event, uh
the lesson can be lost, and that would
be tragic uh because if that were the
case, we could be setting ourselves up
for yet another 9/11 sometime in the
future.
>> Major Mazencki says it was an honor for
him and his students to be involved with
the memorial. For them, it was about
service to the community and the
country.
>> In Junior RTC, our primary mission is to
make younger people but young people
better citizens, and uh we do that
through uh service. Uh have to primarily
three different uh parts of our
community: service to our school,
service to our community, and service to
our country. And so, in today's
ceremony, really what we did was we did
uh ceremony to community and country uh
by commemorating the 9/11 the attacks on
9/11.
>> Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm
Nick Collum.