New Canaan to honor 9/11 fallen on anniversary
NEW CANAAN — The town will take a collective pause on Saturday to pay tribute to its members who were killed 20 years ago to the day on Sept. 11, 2001.
A memorial ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and those who died will be held outside on Saturday on New Canaan Town Hall’s front lawn.
The ceremony will begin at 9:55 a.m., the exact time that the first tower fell. Refreshments will be served immediately following the ceremony.
Last year, a crowd of mainly first responders gathered outside Town Hall at 9:59 a.m., the exact moment the South Tower of the World Trade Center — the second to fall — came tumbling down.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan paid tribute last year to the “2,977 precious lives” who died, the “412 first responders who ran to the fire and lost their lives trying to save others,” and the 6,790 American military members who died in the war on terror since 2001.
Once again, special attention will be paid to the three residents from New Canaan who died in the attacks — Joe Coppo, Eamon McEneaney and Brad Fetchet.
Coppo, 46, worked as a municipal bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald near the top of World Trade Center Tower Two. He was also a youth baseball coach. Coppo Field was named in his honor. He left a wife, Kathleen, and four children.
Famed sports columnist Mike Lupica wrote a column on Coppo just weeks after his death, saying that “every town, if it is lucky, has somebody like Joe.”
Eamon McEneaney, also 46, was the husband of Bonnie McEneaney-McNamara, father of four children and a former All-American lacrosse player for Cornell University. He was a senior vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald, he was also a writer and a poet whose poems were published posthumously by the Cornell University Library with the title of “A Bend in the Road.”
Brad Fetchet, 24, was the son of Mary and Frank Fetchet, co-founders of Voices of September 11th Foundation in New Canaan. He was the brother of Chris and Wes and a former star ice hockey and lacrosse player at New Canaan High School and Bucknell University. Brad Fetchet had just started working for Keefe, Bruyette and Woods as an equities trader on the 89th floor of World Trade Center Tower Two.
“For those who knew Brad, as I did,” Moynihan said last year, “Brad’s kind smile and gentle nature brightened our days and warmed our hearts.”