Students set up field of 3,000 flags at SLU

CANTON — A group of St. Lawrence University students woke before dawn to place 3,000 tiny American flags throughout the campus quad Friday.

They hope to start a new tradition at the college for remembering the victims of the 9-11 attacks.

"I think it brings physicality to an emotional tragedy," said J. Alexander Reinman, president of the SLU Republicans club, which funded and organized the memorial. "It's very powerful to see when you walk by. I don't think the services we've had in the past have done it justice."

Eight years after the terrorist attacks, the students wanted to find a way to remind people of the impact of how many lives were lost.

"We started planning last year to order 3,000 flags," said Paul Tranby, a junior economics and government major from Northfield, Vt. "We looked at getting funding from different organizations. They are calling it a Republican event; however, it's definitely more than that. It's not supposed to be political."

Mr. Reinman recruited 18 other students to help him set up and take down the flags. He said he got the idea from friends at other colleges and was determined to make it happen at St. Lawrence.

"We really wanted people to wake up to the sight," the junior history major from New Canaan, Conn., said. "We wanted to make it about the unity of patriotism, and American patriotism at that. I plan to do this every year that I'm here and pass it on to another student when I leave."

The tidy rows of flags attracted students, faculty, staff and community members Friday, who took pictures and walked slowly around the quad, Mr. Reinman said.

SLU held a brief, non-denominational 9-11 remembrance ceremony Friday night in Gunnison Chapel. A few hours afterward, the student organizers collected the flags to be used again next year.