WINCHENDON – On the morning of Sept. 11, a recording of the names of the 2,977 victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks will be broadcast during a three-hour memorial put on by the Remember to Remember Sept. 11 organization, giving residents a chance to honor their memory.
Winchendon resident and artist/poet James Pelletier, who volunteered at Ground Zero in the weeks following the attacks, founded the organization and produced the recordings.
The broadcast will air on WinchendonTV, Ash-West Community Media, and WKNH 93.1 FM, Keene State College’s student-run radio station, where Pelletier studied. It will also be played in The Commons area at Mount Wachusett Community College. The broadcast traditionally begins at 8:46 a.m., the moment the first plane struck. Pelletier said he expects them to start on time, though exact scheduling may vary by station.
The recording features names read by volunteers from Learning Ally (formerly Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic), as well as notable figures including actress Betsy Palmer, actor Jerry Orbach, Admiral Mike Mullen, and Public Affairs Officer Alan Hicks.
“Our primary focus is on having people understand and remember the amount of human suffering and loss that took place,” Pelletier said. “By broadcasting their names, their memory is honored, an act of dignity for them. It’s very easily forgotten, especially by people who weren’t even born at that time.”
The original recordings in 2002 focused on World Trade Center victims, including firefighters and police officers. In 2008, they expanded to include Pentagon victims and passengers from the hijacked flights. Pelletier has organized annual broadcasts ever since, starting at the Cathedral of the Pines in New Hampshire and gradually expanding to reach a larger audience through public access TV and college radio.
This year’s broadcast carries special significance for the region, honoring Carrie Progen, a 25-year-old Ashburnham woman who was killed in the attacks and once attended Mount Wachusett Community College. Pelletier hopes to expand the broadcast to additional college radio stations in the future to reach younger audiences.
“We want to expose them to the reality, the human cost, of what the loss was. We hope, through education, that it will be a more personal understanding of what actually happened.”
Beyond recordings, Pelletier has honored the victims through poetry and memorial art. His poem “Downtown Lower Manhattan,” was praised by former President Jimmy Carter and The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
“It’s a poetic homage to a place that is incredibly deep in my heart. I wrote it after I returned from New York. It just poured out of me,” he said.
He also helped bring the Starry Night tribute to life in New York City in 2003, a display of 3,000 battery-powered strobe lights, each representing a 9/11 victim. Installed across Battery Park and nearby buildings, each light carried a photograph and name, creating a personal memorial for families.
For Pelletier, each of these projects, whether through poetry, art or broadcasts, has been about keeping the focus on the lives that were tragically lost.
“People remember the architecture, but I don’t want them to forget the people,” Pelletier said.
The Remember to Remember Sept. 11 organization is already planning for the 25th anniversary next year, aiming to broadcast the historic recordings on all Massachusetts public access stations and college radio stations.