EPHRATA — The American Legion and Auxiliary/Art Semro Post and Unit 28 are sponsoring a local ceremony to honor the heroes and victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The sponsors encourage everyone to attend the ceremony, held at noon on Monday, Sept. 11, which was designated Patriot Day by Congress in December 2001. The ceremony will be held on the lawn and steps of the Grant County courthouse.

The Grant County Sheriff's Office, the City of Ephrata's fire and police departments, representatives of the Ephrata School District, Ephrata Chamber of Commerce and members of local churches will participate in the ceremony.

"(The participants) help the American Legion family make this day come alive in honoring the USA and those that make this a great nation," said spokesperson for the local American Legion Jane Montaney.

The bells of the Ephrata United Methodist Church will sound four times, commemorating the crash of commercial airliners into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania.

Montaney said a special portion of the ceremony has also been scheduled to bring awareness to prisoners of war and military personnel missing in action.

"The American Legion family across America is energizing their communities to ensure that our freedoms, those who have sacrificed, and those who are currently sacrificing for it, are not taken for granted," Montaney said.

"As we go about our lives, young members of our armed forces are fighting the war on terrorism in countless ways," she said. "Just as veterans of earlier generations, today's men and women in uniform understand our precious freedoms come at a very high price."

For further information about the ceremony, contact Jane Montaney at (509) 754-4889.