Hilary Denoncourt knelt in the mulch by one of the bushes lining the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery. A trowel in one hand and a bucket of weeds by her side, she gently eased unwanted greenery away from the base of the bush.
Around her, others wearing the same orange Eversource shirt did the same.
As the mid-September sunshine beat down and the cool air carrying whispers of fall became tinged with warmth, dozens of volunteers across the cemetery weeded, planted flowers and redistributed soil. A light smattering of clouds accentuated the cerulean sky, where, exactly twenty-five years earlier, several hijacked planes flew to their demise in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, extinguishing nearly 3,000 lives in the crashes and their aftermath.
Denoncourt, who lives in nearby Salisbury, wanted to spend the solemn anniversary doing something for others. Her workplace joined Granite United Way for its National Day of Service & Remembrance, which garnered over 130 participants in four locations across the state.
“I would just want people to go back to doing this type of thing more and being kinder to one another, like we were those weeks after the events,” she said. “Don’t forget that part of it, because there are a lot of people that aren’t here because of that day that could be doing these kinds of things.”
Belonging to a much larger cohort of hundreds, Granite United Way’s volunteers spent time doing landscaping and beautification at the Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen and leading recreational activities at the New Hampshire Veterans Home in Tilton, in addition to working at Communities for Alcohol- and Drug-Free Youth in Plymouth and supporting a first responder kit-packing event on the Seacoast.
“There are so many volunteers across the country right now, hundreds of thousands of them, that are turning this day into a day of service and remembrance, and really taking the time to give back to the communities that they live and work in, and really honor the lives that were lost on that important day through community service,” said Christina Huntress, Granite United Way’s senior director of community engagement.
The Veterans Cemetery saw volunteers from Eversource, AAA, Walmart, the Veterans Association of Volunteers, the Turner Group and more.
For Huntress, the day offered a sense of togetherness.
“Nobody’s ever alone,” she said, gesturing not only to the volunteers but to the neat rows of gravestones across the grass. “The volunteers that come here, they make a connection here.”
Denoncourt’s childhood friend was recently buried at the veterans cemetery. She found herself thinking of him and of the events of 25 years ago as she worked in the soil on Friday.
She will never forget being at work at the state Attorney General’s office when news of the American Airlines Flight 11 striking the World Trade Center’s North Tower in New York reached her colleagues.
“We were just refreshing Internet Explorer to see what we could find out,” she said. “We all just kind of, I think, made the assumption that it was a small plane — because a big plane wouldn’t do that.”
And then, the second plane hit.
She and her coworkers crowded into a third-floor conference room to watch the news on a thick television set atop a wheelie cart. Denoncourt, who was 24 and pregnant at the time, remembers that amidst the quiet shock and disbelief, there lay an undercurrent of connection.
“People were kinder to people,” she said, describing the lack of “angry traffic” she encountered on the way home and the grave earnestness with which those around her gravitated toward one another. “I think for a brief time, we were all reminded how much we should all mean to each other.”
The first time she saw a plane in the sky again nearly a week later, her heart skipped several beats.
Linda Sarette, a regular volunteer at the cemetery, said the anniversary of September 11 reminds her of the importance of honoring those who serve. Both of her parents are buried at the cemetery.
“I was brought up to respect my military, my police, and honor these people. And today, a lot of people don’t honor these people who fought to give this country their freedom. And those towers coming down is a risk to our freedom, and it’s a scary thing that can happen,” said Sarette, who lives in Sanbornton.
She was working at a law office in Manchester on the day of the attacks. Through her mind, as her eyes remained glued to the television, a single refrain echoed: “That can’t be us. How can that be us? How can that be happening?”
In the two-and-a-half decades since, she continues to see the need for people to stand up for one another and for the freedom of the United States.
“What are you doing to change it? What are people doing today to change to make this a better country?” said Sarette.
Denoncourt, for her part, sees the day of volunteerism as a chance to do exactly that.
“It’s a really special feeling to be here today, instead of feeling the way we were 25 years ago,” she said.
