Stonington ― As the early morning waves rolled onto the shore on Sunday, family and friends gathered at Stonington Point to remember Josh Piver and those lost 21 years ago in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“It’s great to see everyone come out,” Sue Piver, Josh’s mother, said of the 50 or so community members in attendance. “It’s a hard day, but it’s nice they come and remember.”

The Rotary Club of the Stoningtons organizes the ceremony every year. Though co-President Marti Bradshaw could not say how many years they’ve done so, the ceremony’s message does not change.

“It is about remembrance,” Bradshaw said. “We remember the kindnesses that people did that day and we continue to remember that being kind to one another is going to bring peace.”

Those in attendance gathered near a bench dedicated to Josh to listen to Bradshaw and Piver share their thoughts about the day.

“We need to always remember how much we need each other,” Bradshaw said before leading the group in a rendition of “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”

Piver explained a group of co-workers from her time at Custom Marine Canvas, along with family and friends, purchased the bench for the family. “Play Music. Walk on the beach. Won’t be far from reach,” is engraved in the stone seating.

Piver, who was there with her daughter Erika, described her son as “very kind” and a “loyal friend,” who spent a lot of time at Stonington Point in his youth and into his young adulthood, when he worked at Dodson Boatyard during summer breaks from school.

Josh was a Stonington High School graduate and soccer player before he attended the University of Vermont. He was 23 years old and worked for Cantor Fitzgerald in the north tower of the World Trade Center before he died in the attack.

“It really doesn’t get that much easier” as the years go by, his mother said. “It’s not as sharp as an emotion like it was in the beginning. It just settles in. It’s always going to be there.”

Former Stonington resident and Rotary member Dan Holdridge spoke to the audience about his survival from the attack at the Pentagon and to remember the lessons about unity the entire country learned that day 21 years ago.

“But, we also remember that there’s good that can come from tragedy and that goodness is in each one of us,” Holdridge said. “And it’s up to us to bring it out, not just on an anniversary, but every day.”

Holdridge said he and the Pivers have become close in the time since the attacks and have become extended family, even though he now lives in New Hampshire. Holdridge worked for General Dynamics and oversaw the installation of computer networks for the newly renovated portion of the Pentagon.

He has since written a book, and now he spends his days traveling the country to share his story, and the stories like Piver’s, to spread the message of hope and for a better tomorrow. He said he will be speaking at Westerly Middle School on Sept. 21.

“Every day you live with that thing,” Holdridge explained. “You live with the loss, the understanding that you’ve got a second shot at life and the burden of, not only survivor’s guilt, but how can you turn it into a positive?”

Former First Selectman Rob Simmons was the last to speak. He recounted his day at the Capitol, when he was nine months into his first term as a member of Congress. He remembered a police officer running up and down the halls with a nightstick, knocking on every door he could to evacuate the building. He remembered, too, the press conference held on the front steps of the Capitol building, with people of various backgrounds and from across the nation, who came together in that moment.

“In my political life, I’ve never seen such unity,” Simmons said, before he began to sing “God Bless America” with the audience.

Over the last two decades, a scholarship was developed in Piver’s honor. It started at $250, Simmons explained, and is now five awards of $5,000 for current Stonington High School seniors. There are two additional awards of $2,500 that go to Stonington High School graduates who are now attending college.

k.arnold@theday.com