Valley students honor local 9/11 victim

With prayer and song, people gathered at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Palm Springs to honor those who died in the September 11 attacks.

“I was too young to remember this day. I was only one years old, it still means a lot,” 8th grader, Isabella Lanca.

She and her schoolmates lit candles to remember the only valley victim of the attack on America, Barbara Keating, a parishoner at St. Theresa’s.

“I knew Barbara very well. She was a happy and devoted person,” Elizabeth Raynes, of Palm Springs.

Returning to the desert from her annual summer visit to Massachusetts, Keating boarded American Flight 11 in Boston. It was the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center 12 years ago.

“I try not to be sad because she was all happiness, but somehow when you look at that the memories push themselves in,” said Raynes.

Lanca said, “It’s nice to know she’s still remembered today for all the good that she did.”

Sept. 11 is a day parents and teachers say they won’t forget and one they hope students will learn to remember.

“I think it’s so important they understand something did happen that changed the lives that we live as Americans forever. Also to know they have someone they can identify a world changing event with,” said St. Theresa School principal Michael Keno.

Lanca’s father is a police officer. She appreciates the men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

“The firefighters and police officers they didn’t just die for no reason, they went and helped people. I think of the good they did for the country,” she said.