9/11 remembrances on campus

Some 3,000 flags on UW–Madison’s Bascom Hill will pay poignant honor this weekend to the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. and aboard an aircraft over Pennsylvania in on Sept. 11, 2001.

An initiative of the Mendota Beacon, one the student newspapers at UW–Madison, the effort is being organized by Jeremy Wick, a sophomore majoring in economics. “I hope that people who walk past the flags will reflect on the tragedies,” he says. “The situations that caused them still haven’t been resolved. It’s important that we don’t forget that.”

The flags will go up after sunup Sunday and come down in the evening; they will go up again Monday morning from 9 a.m.-noon.

Posters, buttons and bumper stickers will be available for a donation, he says. Proceeds will go to a scholarship fund. The flags will be provided by the Young America Foundation. For more information, contact Wick at (262) 573-4706, jwick@wisc.edu

In addition, the American Red Cross invites members of the UW–Madison and larger communities to donate blood in memory of 911. The need for blood is especially urgent in 2005 in light of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, organizers say. The blood drive will be held on Friday, Sept. 9 between noon and 5 p.m. at Memorial Union’s Inn Wisconsin. Donation takes about an hour. Bring a picture ID. Appointments are available for all times; sign up by visiting www.givelife.org. For more information, call (608) 227-1357, leisn@usa.redcross.org.