South Bend Fire Department holds ceremony at Freedom Memorial in St. Patrick's Park

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The South Bend Fire Department hosted a Day of Remembrance at the Freedom Memorial in St. Patrick's Park.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Representative Jackie Walorski, MNC's Mark McGill, Commissioner Deborah Fleming, Fire Chief Stephen F. Cox, Fire Chief Timm Schabbel, and Assistant Police Chief Bill Thompson, spoke at the ceremony.

"One of the reasons these commemorations are so important is that there's a whole generation of people for whom this may as well be the Kennedy Assassination. It's a distant historical fact more than it is a memory so all the more important for us as a community to talk about what happened, why it happened, and most importantly: how we respond," Mayor Buttigieg said.

One of the victims of the September 11th attacks was a South Bend native.

“The connection is to Katie McCloskey. She was a South Bend resident and graduate of Adams High School. Doing very well in her career and was working on the 97th floor of the World Trade Center at the time of the attack. So her loss is just one example of how thousands of communities were affected in some way by what happened on 9-11 and I’m glad that here at St. Pat’s park we can honor her with this memorial," Mayor Buttigieg said.