The Bronx continued its annual tradition of remembering the 144 Bronx lives that were taken on Sept. 11, in a ceremony organized by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and his staff.

The feelings of renewing the brotherhood of patriotism were widespread on Thursday, Sept. 15 at Lou Gehrig Plaza, where more than 100 people were gathered.

“Today is a day that we should recall that sense of patriotism, that sense of brotherhood and sisterhood that locked the immediate aftermath of that horrible day 10 years ago,” said Administrative Judge Douglas McKeon in his address to the crowd.

With a special ceremony in honor of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. and his staff brought together a chorus of students that sang a selection of American melodies, a vocalist accompanied by Artistic Director Denise Perry of the Millennium Dance Company, and a final releasing of white doves after a reading of the 144 names of Bronx victims.

At the ceremony held last year, that list included one less name, Diaz explained to the audience.

A man by the name of Leon Heyward, a Bronxite who was coming up from the subway right as the second plane hit, chose to stay amidst the debris and smoke to help citizens escape. He was swept up in a cloud of toxic smoke, and passed away this past year.

Robert H. Wolff, president of the Bronx County Bar Association, touched on the courage of the men and women, both those present and those who gave their lives that day and since.

“If there is anything we’ve learned, it is that we will do anything for another human man,” Wolff said.

In Diaz’ address, he told the heartbreaking story of Darryl ‘Pop’ McKinney, an exemplar of someone who had ‘really made it.’ McKinney grew up in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx, meeting Diaz on the basketball courts that now bear his name. McKinney returned to the Bronx after college to work at Columbus High School to direct a youth program, and later joined the ranks at Cantor and Fitzgerald, one of the companies that called the World Trade Center home, and which lost one of the largest numbers of employees.

“He became one of our heroes, he was a role model to our children,” Diaz said.

Umbrellas and rain jackets were whipped out in the middle of the ceremony as rain began to lightly come down, and in response to a siren from down the street, half a dozen firefighters peeled out of their line and briskly walked away from their company.

But the ceremony continued on, as it will for years to come.