We’ll never forget September 11 and those who lost their lives

Beams of light soar into the sky at the annual Tribute in Light display at the site of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. (Denise Gould photo, courtesy U.S. Air Force)

It’s been 15 years since the devastating events of September 11, 2001 in New York City, Washington, D.C. and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania when terrorists used airplanes as weapons to kill innocent American men and women.

Avon High graduate Amy Toyen

On a clear, sunny morning, nearly 3,000 Americans were killed. Some were passengers in the four hijacked aircraft. Some were in the Pentagon or the World Trade Center buildings that were hit. Others were police, firefighters and other emergency personnel responding to the incident in New York and died when the buildings collapsed.

The nation and the world was stunned. We all remember where we were when it occurred. Our feelings and our emotions remain vivid today. We will never forget.

For many of our younger citizens, the Sept. 11 attacks are not events they have experienced. It is a lesson they are learning in school. One hundred and sixty-one residents with ties to Connecticut died in the attack. Avon wasn’t spared on this fateful morning.

Amy Toyen, 24, died in New York City. Toyen, an employee of Thomson Financial in Boston, was in New York to attend an event at the World Trade Center. A marketing coordinator for Thomson Financial, she was helping to set up a display about her company at a trade show on the 106th floor.

Amy was raised in Avon and graduated from Avon High School in 1995. She graduated from Bentley College in 1999.

Each year on September 11, flowers are left at the memorial for Amy Toyen outside the Avon Free Public Library.

A memorial in her honor has been at the Avon Free Public Library since 2002. Canton artist Marilyn Parkinson Thrall designed and executed a 22-inch bronze statue depicting Amy as a young girl, sitting cross-legged on a bench and cradling a teddy bear as she reads a book on her lap.

Each year, the Avon Volunteer Fire Department holds a service in honor of Amy and the first responders that lost their lives responding to the incident. They held a memorial service Sunday at 1 p.m. at their headquarters on Darling Drive.

NOTE: The photo at the top of this story was taken in 2006.

Hartford Courant story in 2002 on the dedication the memorial at the library.

Remembering Amy