The senior class at Bishop Ryan High School decided to commemorate the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by scrubbing down walls and carting away trash at Hope Village.
The miniature village of temporary housing units has housed groups of volunteers throughout the summer. Now that fall is nearing, it is time to get it cleaned up so the site can be closed for the winter.
Senior Kalan Elm explained that seniors hold a retreat every year and this year Chaplain Rev. Jadyn Nelson thought the group should volunteer at Hope Village as part of a class service project.
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Chaperone Karin Will and seniors Nichole Brunner and Abbey Steckler scrub down a wall in a temporary housing facility at Hope Village on Tuesday.
Before the work got started Tuesday, the students and their chaperones attended a service. New York City's World Trade Center was Ground Zero for the attacks on 9/11, but Hope Village is Ground Zero for a new beginning for Minot, as volunteers help to rebuild the city after last summer's devastating flood, said Mike Woiwode, deacon at St. Leo's Catholic Church.
The seniors were in the early elementary grades 11 years ago and were too young to understand the full impact of that day's events.
Elm remembered sitting in his classroom and seeing his teachers crying.
"It was a terrible day," he said.
Senior Aidan Shafer remembers being annoyed by all the television coverage of the 9/11 attacks because it meant he couldn't watch his Saturday morning cartoons.
The group of 27, including the seniors and their adult chaperones, spent the entire day at Hope Village. They said it was nice to give something back to the community.