Thank you
To the editor:
There are some projects that begin as an idea and, somewhere along the way, become something much larger than anyone could have imagined. For me, the City of Sanibel’s A Field of Heroes became exactly that.
What began as a way to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Sept.11, 2001, ultimately became a community-wide promise to remember every life lost, to honor the families who still carry that loss, to recognize the courage and sacrifice of those who responded, and to make certain that the events and lessons of Sept. 11 are not diminished by the passage of time.
For several months, hundreds of people helped turn that promise into reality.
It began with 2,977 American flags — one for every innocent life lost on Sept. 11, 2001. Every flag needed to represent more than a number. Each needed a name, because behind every one of those 2,977 names was a person, a son or daughter, husband or wife, mother or father, brother or sister, friend or colleague.
During one week in July, volunteers gathered at the Sanibel Recreation Center to carefully attach individual laminated name tags to all 2,977 flags. Some volunteers came for one session, and others returned again and again. Some knew someone who died on Sept. 11. Others had no personal connection at all, but simply wanted to help. There were moments during those sessions when a volunteer would recognize a name, and suddenly a project involving thousands of flags became deeply personal.
Thank you to every person who sat at those tables, handled those flags with such care, attached tags, organized them alphabetically, prepared supplies, and helped us accomplish a task that initially seemed overwhelming.
Then came the installation.
Nearly 3,000 flags had to be transported, organized, measured, spaced, and placed according to a carefully planned grid across Sanibel Community Park. Recreation Department staff and volunteers worked through the September heat, humidity, bugs and Florida sunshine, placing the flags one by one and maintaining the alphabetical order that allowed visitors to find individual names.
What we thought would take several days was accomplished in approximately a day and a half. Nearly 60 volunteers helped create the completed Field.
Watching the empty park become row after row of American flags was something I will never forget.
Thank you to every volunteer who bent down hundreds of times to place those flags. Thank you to the first responders, city employees, Scouts, community organizations, businesses both on and off Sanibel, and individuals who worked alongside one another. Thank you to those who delivered supplies, filled buckets, moved equipment, measured rows, checked names, and did all of the unseen jobs necessary to make the Field look as beautiful and respectful as it did.
And thank you to every person who sponsored a flag.
Some sponsored one. Some sponsored several. Some businesses, civic organizations and families stepped forward with significant contributions. Every sponsorship mattered, because collectively our community ensured that all 2,977 lives were represented. The project was supported not only by individual residents and visitors, but also by organizations and businesses throughout our community, and others who answered our call for support.
There were also countless people who shared our posts, displayed flyers, told their neighbors, encouraged friends to sponsor flags, or simply came to the Field and spent a few quiet minutes among the names. You were part of this project, too.
I want to extend a very special thank you to the City of Sanibel and to the city departments whose employees went far beyond their normal responsibilities to support this effort: the Sanibel Recreation Department, Public Works Department, along with the Sanibel Fire Rescue District. I also thank the Sanibel Boy Scouts Pack/Troop 1740, The Sanibel School and the Sanibel Community House for their partnership and support.
This project had the unwavering support of our city leadership, and that deserves individual recognition.
Thank you to Mayor Mike Miller and First Lady Mary Miller, who not only supported this effort as mayor but personally joined volunteers in preparing the flags; Vice Mayor John Henshaw; Councilmember Laura DeBruce; Councilmember Richard Johnson; and Councilmember Holly D. Smith. Each supported the city’s efforts to commemorate this important anniversary and helped reinforce that remembering Sept. 11 was worthy of our time, resources, and attention.
To City Manager Dana Souza, thank you for believing in this project, for supporting the many moving parts behind it, and for giving city staff the opportunity to turn an idea into something of this magnitude.
And to Recreation Director Andrea Miller, my deepest thanks for your trust, encouragement, and support from the moment this idea began in 2025. Projects like this do not happen simply because someone has an idea. They happen when leadership says, “Let’s find a way to make it happen.” Andrea and the Recreation Department did exactly that.
The Field of Heroes was only one part of Sanibel’s remembrance.
On the morning of Sept.11, our community gathered at the Sanibel Community House for Waves of Remembrance — A Morning of Reflection.
Thank you to the Sanibel Police Department and Sanibel Fire Rescue District Honor Guard for beginning our morning with the dignity and solemnity the occasion deserved. The tremendous American Flag that hung from the ladder truck was a sight to behold, over Periwinkle Way.
Thank you to Mayor Mike Miller for welcoming our community and opening the ceremony, and to Councilmember Richard Johnson for offering our prayer and reflection.
Thank you to the members of the Seahorse Chorale from The Sanibel School who performed for us, under the direction of Joseph Giangreco. Involving Sanibel’s youth in this remembrance was especially meaningful because they are part of a generation that did not experience Sept. 11 firsthand. It is through them that these stories, lessons and memories will continue to be carried forward.
Thank you to Deputy Chief John DeMaria of the Sanibel Fire Rescue District, who helped us remember FDNY Battalion Chief 48 Joseph Grzelak; and to Sanibel Police Chief William Dalton, who helped us remember Steven Harris Russin.
Thank you to Vice Mayor John Henshaw for sharing his deeply personal reflections on Sept. 11 and his firsthand perspective from serving as a director with OSHA during that extraordinary time.
I was deeply honored to speak about my friend Samantha Egan, one of the people I personally lost that day. For me, saying her name publicly on Sanibel 25 years later was a reminder of exactly why we created the Field in the first place.
And thank you to Councilmember Holly Smith for closing our ceremony with the message that perhaps matters most: we have a responsibility to keep the promise to Never Forget.
Those moments reminded us that Sept. 11 did not happen in a single instant. It unfolded over a morning that changed thousands of families — and our country — forever.
There is another group I especially want to thank: everyone who came and spent the morning with us.
Every person sat or stood inside the Community House. Every person who visited quietly among the flags afterward. Every person searched the rows for a familiar name. Every person who brought a child or grandchild and explained what happened that day.
Your presence mattered.
As the years pass, remembering Sept. 11 becomes more — not less — important.
For those who lived in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas in 2001, Sept. 11 remains extraordinarily close. Many of us knew someone. Some knew many.
But physical distance from New York, the Pentagon or Shanksville should never create emotional distance from what happened.
Sept.11 was not a New York tragedy. It was not a Northeast tragedy. It was an American tragedy.
That is particularly important to remember here in Southwest Florida. So many members of our Sanibel community have connections to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Washington. Over the course of this project, people quietly shared stories with us about spouses, relatives, friends, classmates, coworkers, and neighbors who were lost. Others told us about loved ones who responded to Ground Zero or who continue to suffer from illnesses related to their service there.
Those stories reinforce why remembrance cannot be confined to the places where the attacks occurred.
We have an obligation to carry those names and stories farther.
After Sept. 11, another group of volunteers returned to Community Park to complete the final stage of A Field of Heroes: carefully removing the flags. Just as much care went into taking the Field down as went into putting it up. Flags were separated from their stakes, protected and prepared so that this memorial would not simply disappear when the installation ended.
And perhaps one of the most meaningful things to come from this entire project is what is happening now.
Whenever possible, we have been honored to offer these flags to the families and friends of those whose names they carried, placing into their hands a deeply personal remembrance of someone they loved and ensuring that each flag continues to carry that person’s memory beyond the Field of Heroes.
Each flag stood in Sanibel soil in honor of one person. Now, when we are able to locate someone connected to that individual, we have the privilege of placing that flag into their hands as a keepsake.
There is something incredibly powerful about being able to say to a family, 25 years later:
Your loved one was remembered here. Their name was displayed. People stopped to read it. Someone cared for their flag. And on Sanibel Island, Florida, thousands of people made sure they were not forgotten.
That may be the greatest legacy of the Field of Heroes.
But our promise does not end there.
The money raised through Field of Heroes flag sponsorships will help Sanibel continue this work by bringing the Tunnel to Towers 9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit to the island in November 2027. The city has announced that proceeds from the Field will support bringing this educational experience to our community at no cost to visitors.
The Tunnel to Towers exhibit is extraordinary. It is an 83-foot tractor-trailer that transforms into an approximately 1,100-square-foot traveling museum. Inside are artifacts, documentary video, recordings of first-responder radio transmissions and other materials that help visitors understand what occurred on Sept. 11. Tours are led by FDNY firefighters who share firsthand accounts of the day and its aftermath. The exhibit has traveled throughout the United States and Canada and has helped educate more than one million people.
For Sanibel to have the opportunity to host this nationally significant memorial and educational experience is an extraordinary honor.
Perhaps most importantly, it provides us with an opportunity to reach young people who were not yet born on Sept. 11, 2001.
Twenty-five years from now, there will be fewer firsthand witnesses to tell these stories. That makes what we do today critically important.
We must tell the next generation what happened.
We must teach them about the people who went to work that morning and never came home.
We must teach them about firefighters who climbed stairs while everyone else was coming down.
We must teach them about police officers, paramedics, military personnel, and ordinary citizens who acted with extraordinary courage.
We must teach them about the heroes aboard Flight 93.
We must teach them about the families who received phone calls and the families who never did.
And we must teach them about what happened afterward, when Americans looked beyond differences and came together to help one another.
That is what “Never Forget” means.
Finally, to everyone who had any part inA Field of Heroes or Waves of Remembrance, please know how grateful I am personally.
Whether you sponsored one flag, sponsored hundreds, attached one tag, installed one row, removed one flag, sang one song, spoke one name, shared one story, donated one dollar, carried one bucket, attended the ceremony, visited the Field, shared information with a neighbor or simply stopped for a moment of reflection — you helped us keep a promise.
For several weeks in September, there were 2,977 flags standing together on a small island in Southwest Florida.
From a distance, they were a beautiful field of red, white, and blue.
But when you walked closer, you saw what really mattered.
The names.
And that was always the point.
To the 2,977 people we honored, to the families who continue to love and miss them, and to every member of our community who helped Sanibel remember: Thank you.
We remembered.
We will continue to remember.
And we will Never Forget.
Denise Dillon
Sanibel