File Photo The Wheeling Fire and Police Honor Guard post the colors during the last year’s Sept. 11 Service of Remembrance held at Heritage Port.

WHEELING — Wheeling area residents are invited to gather and remember the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks during the annual Community-Wide September 11 Service of Remembrance slated for noon Thursday at Heritage Port, Wheeling.

It has been 24 years since terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a third plane crashed in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Nearly 3,000 people died as a result of the attacks and thousands more have died due to illnesses related to recovery and cleanup efforts at the sites.

While it was a shocking tragedy with a still-lasting impact, it also brought the nation together.

Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom, Wheeling, helps organize the annual ceremony. He hopes people will take time out Thursday to gather and remember.

“Many who are alive today were not alive when it happened and don’t know what occurred,” he said. “They don’t remember it personally. If we don’t share the experience of remembering this important moment in our lives and the nation, it could be forgotten.”

Before the ceremony begins, members of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra will play music starting at 11:45 a.m. There will also be music throughout the ceremony. Students from Madison Elementary School are also scheduled to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

“Many years ago then-President Roosevelt said Dec. 7, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, should live in infamy. … Very few pause for Dec. 7,” he said. “We’re in danger of following suit if we don’t stand together and remember the lessons of 2001; not just the pain we all felt when we were attacked then, but the sense of unity and purpose.”

Lief said during Sept. 11 people cared for their communities and strangers in the aftermath of the attack.

“It shouldn’t take tragedies to bring us together,” he said.

The service will last about an hour.

“I think it’s an opportunity to stand together publicly with our neighbors, to remember that we have more in common than the differences we choose to focus our energy on,” he said. “It’s an important opportunity to not forget we are one nation.”

In addition to Lief, interfaith clergy will also be there along with representatives of the police and fire departments, emergency services, Homeland Security and elected officials.

“If people working downtown can come on their lunch break, it would be a meaningful experience, made all powerful if all of us can join together,” he noted.

The latest weather forecast calls for a sunny day on Thursday, but in case of inclement weather the ceremony would be moved to the WesBanco Arena lobby.