At Todd Beamer High School, students honor victims

STEPHANIE KIM
Saturday, September 10, 2011

Excerpt:
On Friday, about 2,000 people, including students, school staff members and dignitaries, assembled on the football field of the Beamer's namesake school, which has an enrollment of more than 1,800.

"They're never going to forget all the people who died," said senior Nathan Ceney, who attended Lakeland Elementary School on Sept. 11, 2001. "I thought it was a movie or something on TV. Who in their right minds would crash into two magnificent towers?"

Federal Way Mayor Skip Priest encouraged the students to not live their lives in fear. He quoted President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The power to resist fear, however, is in each one of you."

Tears rolled down some faces when Deputy Chief Gordie Olson of the South King County Fire and Rescue spoke of the emotions he and other firefighters felt when they realized how many colleagues died on 9/11.

His agency brought back a beam from one of the World Trade Centers. It was on display at the school Friday and will reside permanently at fire station 64 next year.

"It truly surprises me how much emotions range from the artifact," Olson said. the rest