From Gene Sweeney, organizer of the annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony in Patriots Park:

It is with great sadness and disappointment that I inform you all that there will not be the annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony at Patriots Park in Venice in 2020. The State of Florida bans large gatherings and requires they respect the guidelines of at least 6 feet of distancing as a result of the COVID-19 virus.

Please know that the 9/11 Monument (which includes a 2-ton steel beam from the World Trade Center wreckage) is there, all the time, and visitors are always welcome. Especially on this 19th anniversary of 9/11, we encourage you to visit and remember the many who were lost and the great many more who still mourn for them. And, let us all rededicate our lives to mindfulness and awareness so that we are never victims of such terror again.

To view the names that have been engraved on the walls of the 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial at Patriots Park, 800 Venetia Bay Blvd., click on http://bit.ly/1PhYxN4.