North Shore Commemorates 9/11 Terrorist Attack Victims On 24th Anniversary

Updated 1:30 p.m.

DANVERS, MA — Cities, towns, civic organizations and schools planned commemorations of the Sept. 11, 2001 on the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attacks this week.

Essex Tech students and staff from the history department, as well as the school's grounds grew, placed 3,000 American flags around the Essex Tech campus in what school officials called "a powerful visual tribute to those we lost and a reminder of the importance of service and remembrance."

The city of Peabody will observe the 24th anniversary of the September 11th attack on America with a memorial ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday at the Public Safety Memorial on Perkins Street.

Peabody police will also hold a remembrance at 8:30 a.m. at the Grand View Avenue home of American Airlines Flight 11 victim Janis Lasden.

Lasden's sister, Linda Leblanc, puts together the memorial each year that includes flags, flowers and frog statues — including red, white and blue frogs that Leblanc collects.

Lasden was 46 years old at the time of the attack and would have been 70 years old this year. She was traveling to Los Angeles with her boyfriend, Donald TiTullio, on the flight that departed from Logan Airport and crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Massachusetts Task Force 1 will open its 9/11 Memorial and Museum to the public on Thursday from 8:30 to 3:30 p.m. The museum is located at 43 Airport Road in Beverly.

A moment of silence in memory of those who gave their lives in the attack and the subsequent rescue and cleanup efforts — including responding Task Force 1 members — will be held at about the time of the first airplane strike at the World Trade Center at 8:45 a.m.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)