Grayson County, Gainesville set Sept. 11 ceremonies at the 25-year mark

Grayson County and Gainesville each scheduled morning ceremonies for today's 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks, and Gainesville paired its service with a blood drive running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The City of Denison announced an 8 a.m. observance at the Grayson County Courthouse in Sherman and asked residents to stand with local first responders and city representatives. The notice went out ahead of the date. It does not record who came, and it does not say what anyone at the courthouse said. The invitation asked only that the community gather in remembrance.

An hour later and a county west, Gainesville Fire-Rescue set its own ceremony at Fire Station 3, 308 N. Culberson St. The memorial there contains steel recovered from the World Trade Center, according to the department's announcement.

Carter BloodCare runs the Gainesville drive at Valley Creek Church. Fire-Rescue spokesperson Tamara Sieger said the largest blood drive the city has ever held came in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks.

The department said its program would recognize responders who still live with illnesses tied to their service at Ground Zero. In a bulletin dated Aug. 11, the federal World Trade Center Health Program reported that enrollment continues to climb and that more than 100,000 members now rely on it for care of certified September 11-related conditions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the program grew out of the 2010 Zadroga Act and was extended in 2015 to run through 2090. CDC also says there is no enrollment deadline and that covered care is available through a provider network in all 50 states.

The city's adopted fiscal 2021 budget records that the 9/11 memorial, the bell and the retiree monument were relocated to the replacement Fire Station 3, which opened Sept. 11, 2020. An earlier observance survives in the state record. Texas House Resolution 278, introduced in 2019, describes a Sept. 11, 2018, ceremony in Gainesville that honored the victims of the attacks and added commemorative bricks for Shane Lee and three other former first responders.

Congress fixed the date on the calendar within months. Public Law 107-89, approved Dec. 18, 2001, named Sept. 11 as Patriot Day and asked for a yearly presidential proclamation calling for flags at half-staff and a moment of silence. AmeriCorps dates the separate National Day of Service and Remembrance to April 2009 and supports commemorative volunteer work nationwide.

Organizers of the Dallas 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb listed their 2026 event for Sept. 5 and describe the annual climb as a commemoration of fallen first responders rather than a race. The UT Dallas announcement from the university's Military and Veteran Center emphasized national unity and resilience and advertised historical photographs, memorial displays and a virtual-reality experience.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which counts nearly 3,000 people killed in New York City, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and aboard Flight 93, announced that a 35-minute student learning film would be available on demand beginning today. The museum also announced a Sept. 12 opening for an exhibition examining how people and communities turned grief into public service.