With the anniversary of Sept. 11 only one week away, Madison is preparing a number of memorial and commemorative services of the terrorist attacks.
UW-Madison will organize several events including a Campus and Community Commemoration program and a candle light vigil and procession, according to Bryan Gadow, chair of the Associated Students of Madison.
The commemoration will be held Wednesday, Sept. 11 beginning at 8:45 a.m. on Library Mall. UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley and Gadow will speak and there will be time for reflection.
Gadow says it will be \very reflective and contemplative.""
The vigil, sponsored by ASM will begin at Library Mall and go to the Capitol at 7:15 that night.
Classes will not be canceled on Sept. 11. However, faculty members are encouraged to allow interested students to participate in these events.
Organizers of the events said they intended them sto focus on the present rather than the events of the past.
""They wanted to focus it more on how we are coping with the aftermath as a community,"" Gadow said.
The city will play host to the ""Wisconsin Remembers"" commemorative service at the State Capitol at noon that Wednesday. The event will be broadcast throughout the state on television. However, following the event a more local presentation will take place at the State Street corner of the Capitol. Madison Police Department and Fire Department personnel, along with other representatives from across Dane County, will help plant a memorial tree and lay three wreaths in remembrance of the events that day. Each wreath will represent something different'one will remember the people who lost their lives that day, another will commemorate those who gave and helped in the aftermath and the third is for the people continuing to serve their country overseas'according to Darcee Vanderloo, marketing specialist with the Dane County United Way.
""We really want to make sure it [is] something appropriate [in] remembrance of the event,"" Vanderloo said. ""We certainly didn't want to make this seem like a celebration of the event.""
Later that night, the Madison Civic Center will play host to a community-wide observance of the event at 7:30.
""It's very similar to the annual community based Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration that occurs at the Oscar Meyer Theater every January. It's a similar coalition of community, faith-based and religious organizations that are apart of it, "" Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said. ""I'm quite confident all the various remembrances planned on campus or otherwise are all going to be very beautiful memorials of what everyone went through a year ago.""
