Ohio Wesleyan to Commemorate 10th Anniversary of Sept. 11 Attacks
This marker in the OWU Friends Memorial Garden, located between Slocum and Elliott Halls, remembers the Ohio Wesleyan alumni lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The campus will commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9-11 with special events on Sunday. (Photo by Cole Hatcher)
On Sept. 11, 2001, the Ohio Wesleyan University family lost three of its own in the terrorist attacks on the nation: Doug Cherry, Class of 1985; Ted Luckett, Class of 1984; and Ann Judge, Class of 1973.
Today, Cherry’s daughter, Emma, is a freshman at Ohio Wesleyan. She will take part in a special commemoration at 8 p.m. Sept. 11, 2011, when Ohio Wesleyan dedicates a cherry tree newly planted on campus in her father’s memory. [Emma’s mother, Sarah (Patterson) Cherry, also is a member of the OWU Class of 1985, and Doug Cherry’s mother, Anne Saville Cherry, is a member of the OWU Class of 1954.]
The tree has been planted near the OWU Friends Memorial Garden, located between Slocum and Elliott Halls. The garden honors all three of the alumni who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks.
Also as part of the 10th anniversary commemoration, members of the Ohio Wesleyan community will bake and deliver bread to the Delaware Fire Department’s South Liberty Street Station to honor the firefighters—the first responders in emergencies. Students from Egypt, Brazil, China, Mexico, Japan, Pakistan, India, Sweden, and more will take part in this symbolic gesture of friendship and peace. The group will walk to the fire station, 99 S. Liberty St., following the tree dedication.
The “OWU Breads from Around World” idea has been embraced by the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships in Washington, D.C. Ohio Wesleyan is a founding partner of the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, an initiative inviting institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith and community service programming on campus. Ohio Wesleyan also was a founding partner of former President Clinton’s AmeriCorps and the only liberal arts college in the pilot program for the 1993 Summer of Service.
Ohio Wesleyan Chaplain Jon Powers has discussed “OWU Breads” with Joshua DuBois, executive director of the Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and with Eboo Patel, founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core and a member of President Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Powers said DuBois called the idea “inspired,” adding, “We need to let all the other campuses nationwide know so maybe they can include a ‘Breads from the World’ component to their 9-11 event, especially if they are relating to their local first responders.”
And Patel told Powers: “OWU’s project is excellent, amazing. It includes great diversity and a service component, especially because the extra bread is being given to their local Common Ground Free Store and Family Promise, and they are including a reflection/dialogue component that has students sharing with the local firefighters what the making and sharing of bread means to their home faith communities around the world.”
Also as part of the nation’s commemoration of Sept. 11, OWU speech instructor Eric Gnezda ’79 will perform his song “True Heroes” with violinist Arkadiy Gips at 11 a.m. Friday on “All Sides with Ann Fisher” on WOSU-FM 89.7. Gnezda and Gips also will be part of a panel discussion on how the arts have responded to 9-11 and its aftermath. The show is available online.
In addition, Gnezda will perform his compositions “True Heroes” and “Time for America” at Worthington’s Patriot Day commemoration at 12:45 p.m. Sunday on the Northwest Village Green, High Street and Dublin-Granville Road.