The event will be held at the city's 9/11 monument at Riverfront Park. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)

SPRINGFIELD - The Ground Zero Flag, an American flag which flew over the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, will be exhibited at Springfield’s Sept. 11th Monument on Tuesday. A ceremony will be conducted at 11 a.m.

The city’s Police and Fire departments, first responders from American Medical Response, the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department and the Massachusetts Patriot Guard Riders will escort the flag as it crosses the Memorial Bridge to the Riverfront Park monument.

The flag was flown between the World Trade Center’s north and south towers following the terrorist attacks, outside the New York Port Authority makeshift office trailer, deployed to Iraq, and flown around the country.  It has numerous signatures and can only be touched by white cotton gloves to protect it from being damaged.

The flag, which will be held by an honor guard, will be greeted by Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Fire Commissioner B. J. Calvi, Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood, former Holyoke Firefighter Jordan Lemeiux and members of the Massachusetts chapter of of Honor and Remember.

Sarno, Lemieux and the Most Rev. William D. Byrne, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, will offer remarks at the event. Vanessa Ford, known as “The Songstress of Springfield,” will be singing the National Anthem.

Judy Matt, president of the Spirit of Springfield, which helped organize the event, said she encourages the public to make it out to the event.

“The best thing we ever did was go get a piece of steel from the World Trade Center and work with the city to have a final resting place for it on the riverfront,” Matt said. “We already have the letters up for our 911 ceremony which is coming up in a couple of weeks but when someone wants to come and use our park to honor a piece of history, we’re happy to do it.”

Sarno said he appreciates Brian Miller, chapter director of the Massachusetts Honor and Remember Chapter, for choosing the city as one of the spots in the state to display the flag. The flag was in Northampton on Sunday for an event with that city’s Police and Fire departments.

The flag will be carried in the New England Run for the Fallen from Aug. 19 to 21 on a route from Bernardston, in Franklin County, to Kittery, Maine.

The New England Run for the Fallen is a tribute to every New England fallen service member who died as a result of serving from any circumstance during the war on terror.

“I am very proud of the team we put forward to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Sarno said. “I do urge the public to make it down because we always have to remember the first responders. When everyone else is running out of the building, they’re running in the same structure to save lives.”

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