HOBOKEN — The city issued a media release on Thursday, Sept. 1 that two 9/11 memorial handprint flags will be displayed at city hall for the month of September in honor of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
In 2001, as a gesture of solidarity, art teacher Amy Young in Rome, Ga., created a large 7’ X 15’ flag with the handprints of over 600 schoolchildren from Glenwood Primary School.
The school sent it to Hoboken residents Brenda King and Rob Guglimetti as a visual representation of community unity and support for the victims of 9/11. That flag is now in the permanent collection of the Hoboken Historical Museum.
In response, Hoboken artist Raymond Smith, organized Hoboken residents to create a handprint flag to send to the school in Georgia.
The ‘Thank You from Hoboken’ flag includes handprints and signatures of members of the families of 9/11 victims, Hoboken Police and Fire Fighters, Sen. Bernard Kenny, Mayor Roberts and his wife, people from the Homeless Shelter, and the artist’s family and friends and was sent to the school in 2002.
It has been returned to Hoboken from Georgia for the 15th anniversary, and will be displayed along with the Hoboken Children’s Memorial Flag in the lobby of city hall.
The Hoboken Children’s Memorial Flag, by the same artist in 2002, has 229 handprints, eight of which are the children of the Hoboken victims. That flag had been on display at the Hoboken Board of Education and its current home is in Hoboken City Hall.
For more on Sept. 11 in Hoboken, see hudsonreporter.com starting Sunday.
Hoboken City Hall to display 9/11 memorial flag for the month of September
