Dust and debris. Screams and sobs.

The replayed footage of the World Trade Center tumbling down like a stack of Jenga blocks on Sept. 11, 2001, is a memory that will forever live on.

The world has mourned the loss of many at the hands of terrorists since that day. Finally, on May 1, 2011, the U.S Navy Seals brought Osama bin Laden to justice in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College Republicans will hold a 9/11 memorial on campus late this week in honor of the ten year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

With the help of many students, businesses and university personnel, the UW-Whitewater College Republicans are sponsoring a memorial made up of 2,977 American flags to represent each life that was taken that day.

“We wanted to find a way to not do something political,” Chairman of the UWW College Republicans Scott Coenen said.

The idea for the memorial came together over the summer when the group started looking for a way the campus community could remember the terrorist attacks together. The purpose of the memorial is to bring the community together, Coenen said.

“I think it’s important that we remember this day and honor the lives that were lost,” sophomore Lauren Gruennert said.

The flags were donated to the university by a national organization that gives flags to campuses and communities. The UWW College Republicans found the group over the summer and decided to get the 2,977 flags for a remembrance memorial.

Coenen said he won’t ever forget that morning sitting in English class. Once they found out, they turned the television on. For the rest of the day, no school work was involved. They talked about what was going on in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

The memorial will rest on the University Center Mall. Volunteers will begin setting up the memorial at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10. It will reside there until the evening of Monday, Sept. 12.

Students, faculty, and all community members can come mourn and remember the day. Chancellor Richard Telfer will speak at the memorial at noon on Monday, Sept. 12. Telfer and many other speakers will come together with the Whitewater community to honor the lives that were taken in New York City, Shanksville, Penn., and at the Pentagon on that catastrophic day.

Gruennert plans to attend the memorial service on Monday to listen to Telfer and other speakers talk about the day that has haunted many of us.

“This is important to us because it didn’t happen overseas far away,” Coenen said. “These are our fellow Americans. This is our home.”