Young America’s Foundation Mobilizes A New Generation To Remember 9/11

Students at more than 100 high schools and colleges will plant thousands of American flags to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization, is mobilizing students nationwide for its annual 9/11: Never Forget Project, which encourages participating schools to create memorials featuring 2,977 flags, one for each person killed in the 2001 attacks.

The displays will begin appearing on campuses and in surrounding communities in the days leading up to September 11. YAF also encourages students to hold a campus-wide moment of silence or prayer at 9:11 a.m. and invite speakers to discuss the attacks and their aftermath.

“This year marks the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, providing a new generation of young Americans with an opportunity to learn about one of the darkest days in American history, remember those who were lost, honor the first responders and members of the military who answered the call, and reflect on the extraordinary unity and patriotism that followed,” YAF President and former Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker told the Daily Wire.

YAF first launched the project in 2003 to give students a tangible way to commemorate the victims killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93. Since then, students participating in the project have placed more than 14 million American flags in remembrance.

The project carries additional significance this year because today’s high school and college students were not alive when 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.

“There is a generation of young Americans who were not yet born when terrorists attacked our homeland,” Walker said. “YAF’s 9/11: Never Forget Project gives these students the opportunity to learn about that day, honor those we lost, and ensure that the next generation understands the courage, sacrifice, and patriotism that followed.”

In addition to the campus displays, YAF says it will hold a commemoration on Capitol Hill and create another major flag display at West Beach in Santa Barbara, California, near YAF’s Reagan Ranch Visitor Center.

 “Twenty-five years later, we must never allow the memory of September 11 to fade,” Walker said. “We will never forget.”