Healing Field honoring 9/11 victims now open
Volunteers returned to Tempe Beach Park Friday morning to erect flags to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks at the 14th annual Tempe Healing Field.
Nearly 3,000 flags cover the field, organized into three main sections to honor the victims from the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the flights.
The Tempe Healing Field is one of 13 in the nation, all of which grew from the idea of a Utah flag company owner on the tragedy’s first anniversary.
Paul Swenson, owner of the Colonial Flag Company, got flags from his work to use as a visual representation of the tragedy on September 11, 2002. This idea prompted others across the country, including a group in metro Phoenix, to start similar fields of their own.
The Phoenix area exchange clubs came together to form the Valley of the Sun Exchange Clubs Foundation, which started Phoenix’s Healing Field in 2004. Hundreds of volunteers show up each year to help set up the display.
Ryan Royse, president of the Exchange Club of Tempe, was a part of the group that started the Valley of the Suns Exchange Clubs Foundation, and he has been involved with the Healing Field since.
Royse said the group has “basically perfected the process” of setting up the field.
“It started when it was just a couple people and it would take them all day to pound in the rebar and do the flags and so forth,” Royse said. “But now we have roughly at least 300 to 400 volunteers to set up the flags on this Friday morning . ... The set-up, with everyone’s help, takes about an hour.”
He said it costs around $30,000 to put on the Healing Field each year, and that money comes from donations and sponsors.
Events throughout the year raise money, and merchandise is sold on-site.
Now that the flags are up, the field is open to the public through Monday, Sept. 11.