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, head principal of 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 the Taliban terrorists crashed airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but the response to the heinous acts was the best of America.

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, even today.

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 apply could be applied to those killed on "9-11."

Reciting the conclusion of the famous speech, Shute said, "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."

In delivering the closing prayer, Dan Cooper, pastor 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 upperclass.

Cooper was among several church leaders offering comments and prayers. Also participating were: Bill Cooper, pastor of Follansbee Church of Christ; Joe Cuomo, pastor 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 ten who were killed in action there.

"They answered the call first. We must respect them and honor them," he said, noting a plaque bearing their names can be found at the corner of the Follansbee City Building.

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

Rea said he asked all of the firefighters to step forward because different circumstances could have resulted in any of them being the ones to enter the burning house.

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; the 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.)