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FOLLANSBEE - At a community service Sunday, local officials and clergy encouraged area residents to remember the bravery and unity displayed following the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as the tragic loss of lives.

Toni Shute, principal at Brooke High School, told those who gathered at the Ray Stoaks Plaza outside the Follansbee City Building that America faced the worst of evil when terrorists crashed airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and downed Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pa., but the heinous acts brought out the best in Americans.

Shute noted the many firefighters and other emergency first responders who charged into the burning towers of the World Trade Center to rescue those inside and the many servicemen and women called to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Noting the thousands killed in the attacks, she said it's natural that Americans would continue to feel anger toward those foreign assailants, but we also must carry on the vivid reminders of compassion that followed.

"We miss them not because they are gone, but because they were here," Shute said, adding the final lines of Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" could be applied to those killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth," she read from the speech.

In delivering the closing prayer, the Rev. Dan Cooper of Hooverson Heights Church of Christ asked those attending to remember the unity displayed in the days following the attacks, when Americans came together regardless of whether they were Democrats, Republicans, Catholics or Protestants, lower or upper class.

Cooper was among several church leaders offering comments and prayers. Also participating were the Rev. Bill Cooper of Follansbee Church of Christ; the Rev. Joe Cuomo of Follansbee Christian Assembly; Verna Tarr, a lay leader from Follansbee United Methodist Church; and the Rev. Pete Giannamore of St. Anthony Catholic Church.

Tribute was paid not only to the firefighters, ambulance crews and police who responded at the crash sites of the four hijacked airliners but also to local first-responders and area servicemen and women, past and present.

Shute read the names of more than 130 local men and women who have served the military in Iraq and Afghanistan since the attacks.

Mayor Tony Paesano, who led the program, called attention to the 270 Follansbee area men who served in World War I and the 10 who were killed in action there.

"They answered the call first. We must respect them and honor them," he said.

City Fire Chief Larry Rea asked members of the city's volunteer fire department to come forth and be recognized. He singled out Mike Varlas and Dan Ciccolella for their rescue of a local man from his burning home on Terika Drive last week.

Also participating in the program were the Tri-State Young Marines, who raised the U.S. flag; members of Cub Scout Pack 57, who led the Pledge of Allegiance; Ohio Valley Veterans Memorial Squad, which delivered a military salute; American Legion Post 45 Second Vice Commander Richard McCullough, who served in the Middle East and presented a memorial wreath at the site; and Verland West and Bethany Snyder, who sang Alan Jackson's "Where Were You?" and "God Bless America," respectively.

(Scott can be contacted at wscott@heraldstaronline.com.)