FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                   August 25, 2006

Release No. M-93-06

MAYOR WILL LEAD REMEMBRANCE WALK

 FOR FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS

             Mayor Mufi Hannemann will lead a Walk of Remembrance around the Civic Center and part of Kakaako on the evening of September 10, 2006, as the City observes the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America.

            “We’re calling this walk ‘Honolulu Remembers . . . Never Forget’ and we hope to make it an annual event,” said Mayor Hannemann. “We are doing it to honor the memory of those people who perished in the 9/11 attacks and to recognize the first responders ­– the police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians –who put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect the public as well as the members of the armed forces who are protecting this country.”

            The public is invited to participate in the walk, which includes brief ceremonies and wreath presentations at the Honolulu Police Department’s Alapai headquarters, the Honolulu Fire Department Headquarters at Queen and South streets and the Prince Kuhio Federal Building, and ends at Honolulu Hale, where a formal service will be held.

             Marchers are asked to gather at the Beretania Street entrance to the HPD headquarters by 6:30 p.m.  After the ceremony there, the procession will go along South and Alapai to HFD headquarters, then down South Street to Halekauwila to the Prince Kuhio Federal Building. The march will then proceed up Punchbowl Street to Honolulu Hale.

             The program at Honolulu Hale will include recognition of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department, a wreath-laying and music by the Royal Hawaiian Band. Emergency vehicles from the police fire and emergency services department will be on display.

            Participants in the walk are encouraged to bring flashlights. Free parking will be available at the Frank F. Fasi Civic Center parking structure (enter from Alapai or Beretania streets.)

             “We plan this walk to be a solemn, nonpartisan, nonpolitical observance of the day that changed America, September 11, 2001,” said Mayor Hannemann. “No matter what people might feel about events that transpired since then, the walk is meant to remember the losses we suffered and the heroism we summoned up that day.”

            “Honolulu Remembers. . . Never Forget” grew out of a new movement encouraging “freedom walks” nationwide to observe the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

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Contact:

            Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, 523-4674

            Bill Brennan, 527-6928

            Mark Matsunaga, 527-5767