By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
It was a total of 2,978 steps: one step taken for every life lost. That was the object of a special memorial ceremony held by the Moapa Valley Fire District (MVFD) on Wednesday, September 11.
A large group of MVFD volunteers gathered at the flagpole in front of the Overton Community Center at 7:00 pm in full firefighting gear; even including oxygen tanks and masks. Their aim was to commemorate the lives that were lost in the series of terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
Joining the local firefighters were a handful of Metro Police officers as well as a crowd of comunity members who had heard about the ceremony throughout the day and had assembled to participate.
“We do this to remember the events of that day and the great losses that occurred,” said Overton Station #74 Captain Blake Empey, who had come up with the idea of the event. “May we never forget!”
After a pledge to the flag and a moment of prayer, the group of about 65 people set off on its walk through downtown Overton.
Among those leading the procession were Captain Empey and MVFD Chief Steve Neel, both of whom were carrying the burden of full firefighting gear.
Fire engines and Metro police cars alerted and slowed down traffic through the business district as the long line of participants walked from the Overton Library, south down Moapa Valley Blvd, nearly to Perkins Ave.
Then the entire procession turned and walked, up the other side of the street, north towards the intersection with Cooper St.
Business owners and other local residents came out to the roadside to greet the procession and voice support.
“We didn’t know that this was going to happen until just a couple of hours ago,” said Xtreme Stitch owner Gary Christensen who came out of his downtown shop to watch the participants pass by. “If we had known, I think we would have had the streets lined like Veteran’s Day for something like this. It is pretty powerful.”
At that point, the crowd stopped and gathered together for a moment of silence. Empey explained that the longest section of the walk which had just been completed, entailed approximately 2,555 steps; one for each civilian that lost his/her life in the 911 attacks.
The group then continued the walk up Cooper street to the intersection of N. Jones Street. Here they paused again, having completed another 71 steps. That was the number of law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty, Empey explained.
Finally, the procession turned west on Jones Street and ended in front of Overton Fire Station #74. The last segment consisted of approximately 352 steps in memory of all the firefighters and EMS personnel who died that day.
“We just took a little more than 2900 steps and it took a while, and quite a bit of effort,” Metro sergeant Bret Empey told the crowd as it gathered briefly in front of the fire station. “Every step that we took represented a father, mother, brother, sister that never made it home that day. I hope as we all return home now that we remember that there were a lot of people who sacrificed everything that day to help their fellow man.”
Attendees were hushed and respectful throughout the walk. Logandale resident Josh Melvin, who brought his four children along to participate felt that it was a valuable teaching tool for his children, none of whom were alive in 2001.
“It was good to have kids here to impart a little of the magnitude of that loss to them,” said Melvin, who works as a Metro officer in Las Vegas. “They got to feel every step and consider each life that was lost because of cowards that wanted to destroy our way of life.”
Captain Blake Empey said that the idea for the walk had occurred to him just earlier that same day. He had planned to make a memorial walk by himself up the Mormon Mesa roadway in full gear in remembrance of his fallen brothers.
“But then it occurred to me, ‘Why would I do this alone?’” Empey said. “I’ll drag everyone else along as well.”
Chief Neel said that once Empey had put down the challenge, MVFD volunteers had snapped quickly into action. They had put out the word of the event in every way possible including via text message, email and social media.
Given the short notice, Neel was pleasantly surprised at the crowd that had turned up.
“Next year we will have a little more advance time to plan it and get the word out,” Neel said. “I think we will have a lot more people come out to join us.”
