Moving tribute remembers 9/11 victims

EVANSTON — “I volunteer at the memorial because the events of 9/11 changed the direction of my life,” Alison Van Lente, of the Evanston Fire Department Pipes and Drums,” said on the 22nd anniversary of the attacks. “I want to remember who we were when we were united in grief.”

This was Van Lente’s second consecutive year playing the bagpipes at the Dawn to Dusk moving 9/11 tribute, held at Bear Meadows in Evanston. She performed “Amazing Grace” at precisely 7:37, 7:58, and 8:28 that morning. The times are the moments the Pentagon was hit, when the South Tower collapsed, and when the North Tower collapsed, respectively, Mountain Time.