DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Participants pass a large American flag during the 2025 9-11 Memorial Ride Thursday. The 42-mile-long ride began and ended at the Clinton Township Fire Hall, passing through South Williamsport, Williamsport, Montoursville, Hughesville, Muncy, Montgomery and other communities.

Under a crystal clear evening sky, reminiscent of that infamous morning 24 years ago, thousands of motorcycles roared through Williamsport and other communities in what has become a rolling tribute to honor the people and the events that unfolded on Sept. 11, 2001.

After an hour-long patriotic and moving service at the Clinton Township Volunteer Fire Co., the riders were given a command for “kickstands” up at 6 p.m. for the annual 9-11 Memorial Ride, which is, arguably, one of the nation’s longest continuing rolling tributes to that infamous day.

Hundreds, if not thousands of residents placed out chairs, some planted American flags in the grass berm and then waved to the motorcyclists and public safety personnel who also waved back.

Along Main Street and Route 405 in Hughesville and Wolf Township residents had front row seats to the spectacle on their porches, or for those who brought chairs – a chance to sit so close the breeze from the passing by of the rolling tribute could be felt on their faces.

A new generation observing

Levi Milheim, 9, of Hughesville, went one better. He rode his 2024 model .75 cc dirt bike, and wore his helmet, to greet the riders. For Milheim, the terrorist attacks are history taught at school and learned through events such as this Memorial Ride.

“I love all of the motorcycles,” Milheim said.

His mother, Renee Milheim, said she also likes to see the riders just as she has for the past eight years she has been in the borough.

“I love how the people all come together for a cause that was supposed to destroy us,” she said.

Special reason for watching

Bree Stabler was with her two young daughters, but this year held a special place in her heart this year, especially.

That was because her 18-year-old brother, Chase, had just graduated from basic training after the recent Muncy High School graduate had enlisted in the Army National Guard. Her grandfather, too, served in the military.

“I love how they come together for the men and women who sacrificed their lives for this country,” she said.

“He’ll be home in December,” she said.

“I get goosebumps,” said Sandy Schell, as she planted American flags in the grass berm. “I get so excited and I know it is awful to celebrate but I am glad somebody does something,” she said.

Schell said she and her friends would be watching while seated on chairs on the grass berm. The 300 block of South Main Street in Hughesville is where numerous residents live, most able to move chairs a few feet to watch the procession.

Schell has done this religiously for the past six years.

“We had a bike,” she said, referring to her husband, Glenn.

“Lots of people give motorcyclists a bad wrap,” she said. For these thousands of riders on this annual run – nothing could be further from the truth.

“We love watching this,” said Denise Clayton with her passenger as they parked alongside Main Street in the borough. “The memories,” she said, as she and her passenger awaited the roar that would last close to an hour and was about an hour away with kickstands up at 6 p.m.

Her front-seat passenger was, admittedly, hard of hearing, but Clayton said with a smile that – “she will be able to hear when they ride by.”

“Every year I go down to the corner of Southern Avenue and watch it,” said long-time South Williamsport resident Janet Kurtz, for whom honoring the victims remains paramount.

“It’s very important to remember 9-11, and all those people that lost their lives,” she said.

“You have to let them know that you still care . . . it’s something that should have never happened,” she said.

“A lot of people lost lives that day,” Kurtz said. “They left not knowing they were never coming home – daughters, sons, officers and everybody that responded to it – they walked out of that house in the morning, said ‘goodbye’ to their kids and wife, and never went back,” she said.

“And many of the survivors are probably very pleased that it’s still going on. It says people care,” Kurtz said, adding that she likes to cheer on the riders, as well.

“They need the support of the community,” she said.

“I’ve been watching it forever. I want to say five or six years, if not more,” said South Williamsport borough resident Paula Grimes.

“It’s a memorial for the victims of the attack, to just show them support, because they very well may have lost somebody, or we may have even lost somebody,” she said.

Grimes was at work when news broke of the attack, and her only concern was getting her children from school so she could be with them.

“It brings awareness and discussion with my children on what happened and how things changed after the 9-11 attacks,” said Scott Caverly, of South Williamsport, who has been watching the memorial ride for the past five years.

Like so many others, Caverly was working that day and happened to walk by a television in the showroom, hearing the news of a plane crash in New York City.

“The next time I walked by, she was bawling and said we were under attack. I went home that night and did not get 10 mins of sleep. I was up all night watching the news,” Caverly said.

The 9-11 Memorial Coalition is the founding organization of the run which began in the days after the attacks.

The ride has a common theme to “Never Forget” the infamous day when terrorists hijacked four national flights, two striking each of the World Trade Center buildings in New York, another slamming into the side of the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93, which terrorists intended to use to hit the U.S. Capitol, but that attack was thwarted by a passenger revolt that forced the aircraft down into an open field in Shanksville, claiming only the lives of the 40 passengers on board.

In all, the attacks claimed the lives of 2,977 victims.

In the days after, individuals from Lycoming County were among the thousands who traveled to lower Manhattan to give comfort to the ailing and workers removing rubble where the World Trade Center twin towers once stood and at the Pentagon.

Among them was the late Father John Manno, who offered spiritual assistance to the firefighters, police and rescue personnel who sifted through the rubble in the aftermath of the collapsed towers.

Manno rode in the 9-11 Memorial Ride each year on Fred, the name he gave to his Harley Davidson. And, once again Manno’s memory was preserved as Fred was hauled on a flatbed trailer. Moving and patriotic sentiments were offered by state Rep. Joe Hamm, R-Hepburn Township, and state Rep. Jamie Flick, R-South Williamsport, rode with the procession.