Dodgingtown Sept. 11 Ceremony Draws Dozens

Dozens of people from near and far gathered on the lawn of Dodgingtown residents Howard and Jeanette Lasher Sunday in remembrance of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks.

The Lashers annually hold the ceremony in honor of the nine friends and a son of a colleague who perished on that day, though this year’s event drew a much larger crowd, likely due to the significance of the decade milestone.

“For all of us this morning, and in fact for Americans everywhere, the despicable acts against our nation forever changed our world,” said Howard Lasher, a former floor broker in the American Stock Exchange, who, shortly after the terrorist attacks, commissioned the painting of a flag mural on a row of maple trees on his property.

Over the years, the flag has become a beacon of patriotism for motorists crossing the Bethel-Newtown town line on Dodgingtown Road.

“This American flag memorial represents our way of life, one which recognizes and respects freedom and democracy,” Lasher said. “In spite of the passage of time there are no words, no ceremonies, no monuments, no plaques, no amount of tears, which will ever return the loved ones taken from us and neither can this memorial ever erase the pain and loss which befell our great country in the tragedy of 9-11.

“But what this American flag memorial can do is to provide to those who lost a parent or a grandparent, a husband or a wife, a child or grandchild, a brother or sister, a bestfriend, a solemn place on which to reflect mourn and move forward each in their own way. It can also serve to remind us that the American spirit is resilient and can never be broken.”

The flag was painted by local artist David Merrill, whose specialty is mural painting though the flag trees was one of his most challenging, he said.

“It tested everything that I was made of, all of my talents,” he said. “I remember working from sun up to sun down. My greatest fear was the weather.”

In order to help him finish on time, his wife, Beryl Merrill, also had to pick up a brush and painted some of the red stripes on the lower portions of the flag where she could reach.

The flag trees have weathered the test of time, although the Merrills, former Newtown residents who now live in Southbury, have had to check up on it, including when Tropical Storm Irene moved through town, bringing down dozens of trees.

“We did come down to make sure they were standing,” said Beryl Merrill, who was among those attending Sunday’s ceremony.

With the trees mere yards from the Newtown and Bethel border, the service drew residents, veterans, police officers, firefighters and many from both towns as well as those who came from afar.

The service featured a handful of soloists and speakers, including elected officials, such as Newtown First Selectman Pat Llodra and U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut).

Among those who came from afar was Neal Wolkoff, a friend of the Lashers, who drove from his home in South Orange, N.J. to Newtown for the first Sept. 11 memorial service he has attended in the 10 years since the attacks.

“A lot of the event is just seared in your mind,” he said. “I was unfortunately in my office and seeing the whole thing very very clearly…It was really just horrible.”

Wolkoff said he often thinks about the people who died that day but recalling the events is not something he likes to do. In fact, he has avoided attending Sept. 11 commemoration events until this year when he accepted the Lashers’ invitation to attend the ceremony.

“It’s a very meaningful day to them and so I couldn’t think of anybody I would like to share the day with," Wolkoff said. "But most years, I try to get through it and go from the 10th to the 12th of September as quick as possible. I try not to dwell on it too much.”

Editor's note: For more on the other Sept. 11 ceremony held in town, see Sandy Hook Fire Co. Holds Sept. 11 Service