OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Every year, John Mock comes out to Memorial Park and puts down a flag, one at a time.
"The innocent souls that lost their lives in this senseless act of terrorism and what little we can do to keep them in our thoughts and prayers, is, is meniscus compared to what the families have gone through,” says Mock, a past president of the Rotary Club.
When it's all done, 3,100 flags we'll be displayed at Memorial Park. Each of them, with a name, and where they were in their lives were cut short.
"As you look at the names on the flags, their names and where they were from, it really makes it more sobering, because you really feel an attachment to that individual,” says Mock.
This year is a bit different. While the Rotary Club has helped every year, they're now running it. Lynn Castriano, who's brother Leonard died in the north tower almost 18 years ago, ran it for the last 14 years.
She passed the torch so the tradition can live on for decades.
"This is all history, so what a wonderful way to have 9/11 be remembered, not through the planes hitting the towers , or the planes crashing into the ground, but to remember there were lives lost and having a visible way to be able to have that through flags,” says Castriano.
All the flags will be laid down by tomorrow. one of the last steps is hammering in the flags with Nebraska connections. That's when Lynn will put in one for her brother.
"God it's sadness, I mean why should I have to put his name on one of these flags, that sadness never goes away,” says Lynn
Due to a lack of volunteers and harder ground that normal, the flag laying we'll be wrapped up tomorrow instead of today.
