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Hundreds mark 9/11 with walk
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COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: Colton Lockner, 11, of Lake Milton, leads a crowd down the home stretch of the Freedom Walk. Colton organized the walk, which finished at the Lake Milton VFW hall.
By Sean Barron
A 14-year-old songwriter and singer performed for a few hundred participants.
LAKE MILTON — Colton Lockner was only 4 when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks took place and he remembers few specifics.
But that hasn’t stopped the 11-year-old Jackson-Milton Middle School sixth-grader from doing something to remember and honor the lives lost that day.
“I don’t remember 9/11, but I heard a lot of stories about it,” he said. “It sounded horrible and I was sad people lost their lives.”
Over the past three years, though, Colton has done much more than feel mournful. He’s organized annual events, including Wednesday’s Lake Milton Freedom Walk, to remember the victims of the attacks and to honor military personnel, past and present.
A cousin who’s in the Army Reserves also influenced his decision to organize the walks, Colton noted.
A few hundred elected representatives, veterans and others took part in the 1 Ω-mile walk that began near Mahoning and Grandview avenues and proceeded to the American Legion Post 737 at 16465 Milton Ave. The program included a variety of speakers and patriotic songs.
Despite the passage of time, it’s important to continue to remember those who gave their lives saving others on 9/11, said Rick Mirenzi of the Canton-based Veteran Connections. Mirenzi asked those in the audience to thank members of the safety forces for their services and urged young people to vote in the Nov. 4 general election.
Richard Roumfort, a World War II Navy veteran, shared several recollections of his military experience and made a few comparisons between that war and the war in Iraq.
Even though roughly 2 million World War II veterans are still alive, more than 300,000 American lives were lost during that war, and about 672,000 men and women were wounded, he noted.
Also giving remarks was state Rep. Ron Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th.
Making her voice heard at the program was 14-year-old Jesse Galchick, a singer and songwriter.
Jesse, a West Branch High School ninth-grader, wrote and performed “Last Soldier Standing,” which she penned after having met a family at last year’s walk who lost a son in Iraq. Participants also were treated to Jesse’s interpretation of “I Will Remember You” by Sarah McLachlan.
“I felt I needed to write a song about [the family] and what their son did,” she said.
Colton’s efforts didn’t surprise his mother, Robyn, who said her son enjoys helping others. Colton has an interest in the military, two grandparents who are veterans and a close-knit family, all of which contributed to his desire to organize the freedom walks. The last two were in Sebring, where the family lived before moving to Lake Milton earlier this year, Robyn Lockner said.
“Colton is very driven and has a very big heart, and wants to do what he can to help,” his mother said, adding that media coverage of 9/11 increased his understanding of what occurred that day.
Giving the invocation and benediction at the 2008 Freedom Walk was Fred Schrock, a member of VFW Post 9571 of Ellsworth and a Vietnam veteran.
The program also included tether rides in a hot-air balloon to benefit the Heroic Choices Foundation, a Princeton, N.J.-based organization, formerly the Todd Beamer Foundation, named in honor of one of the passengers on United Flight 93 that crashed Sept. 11, 2001, in a field near Shanksville, Pa. Beamer became known for his words, “Let’s roll,” uttered to his fellow passengers staging the effort to derail the terrorists’ plan to crash the plane into a government building.