To honor of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Eastern Michigan University will host a Day of Remembrance on Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, at 8:35 a.m. in Pease Park, at the corner of West Cross and Perrin Streets. The ceremony will be centered around the 14-foot, 6,800-pound steel beam from the South Tower of the World Trade Center that lives on EMU's campus.
The ceremony will begin with remarks from EMU President Brendan Kelly, followed by a moment of silence, said EMU Executive Director of Media Relations Melissa Thrasher in a news release. During the moment of silence, first responders will place flowers on the steel beam to honor the lives lost on 9/11. A ceremony from the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. will follow. Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-District 6, will be in attendance at the Day of Remembrance, Thrasher said in the release. Community members are welcome to attend.
After the ceremony, the EMU Aerie mobile oral history recording booth will offer attendees a chance to share their personal recollections of 9/11 and the impact on their lives, Trasher said. The oral history booth will run at the memorial from 9-11 a.m.
“Twenty-five years later, the events of 9/11 still resonate deeply with our community,” Kelly said in a written statement. “I’m moved that we can come together as a community in a place that is home to a piece of the World Trade Center, to honor the lives lost, remember our fallen heroes and recognize the courage of the citizens who stood up for one another and for humankind.”
The 9/11 memorial located in Pease Park on EMU's campus was unveiled at the 10-year anniversary of the attacks in 2011.
The surface of the steel beam at the memorial is marked with dents caused by molten metal that fell onto the steel during the attacks. The word "south" is written on the side, believed to identify the South Tower, Thrasher said. The beam also includes the number 74, likely in reference to the 74th floor, just below where the second plane crashed into the tower, she said.
"The steel beam at EMU’s memorial offers a tangible connection to one of the defining moments in modern American history," Thrasher said in the news release.
