By Anelia K. Dimitrova
Danny Laudick was a ninth-grader at Peet Junior High when 9/11 happened.
Sitting in Mrs. Lyman’s class that morning, he was watching, along with his peers, the impact of the terrorist attacks on America in real time.
The teachers scrambled to figure out how to handle the tragedy that was broadcast on TV screens around the world and how to explain it to the students.
At the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, close to 3,000 souls perished that day.
Twenty-four years later, Laudick, now the mayor of Cedar Falls, recalls vividly how he and his classmates wrestled to process the images of 9/11.
“It was right at that age when you are old enough to understand things but you don’t really know the full impact and implication of what it was,” Laudick told me. “I just remember sitting around and wondering, ‘What does this mean?'”
On Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, as commemorative events were held all over the country, Laudick, in his official capacity, led a 5K in remembrance of 9/11.
Now in its second iteration, the Cedar Falls Hope & Honor 5K run, drew community members of all ages, members of UNI ROTC program, and several Cedar Falls firefighters, among others.
Shortly before 8 a.m., participants gathered at Paw Park, where several community organizations like the veterans-focused Americans for Independent Living, UnityPoint Health, Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Center and Lutheran Services in Iowa, were on hand to showcase their services.
Around 8:10 a.m., everyone gathered at the trailhead off Main Street across from Paw Park for the commemorative run.
Members of the Cedar Falls Public Safety Honor Guard, which includes two police officers and two firefighters, posted the colors at the start of the trail in a brief silent ceremony as everyone watched.
In brief, impromptu remarks, Laudick said that the number of firefighters and first responders who have died from illnesses related to 9/11 now exceeds the number of the victims who perished that day.
He also noted that this year’s event pays tribute to service members, past and present, including members of the Waterloo-based 133rd Infantry Regiment of the Iowa National Guard, who were deployed earlier this year to the Middle East.
At the sendoff ceremony for the soldiers, which took place on May 28 at the Cedar Falls High School, Laudick asked one of the commanding officers what the community could do to help with the deployment.
Keep reminding the community that “they are out there,” the officer said.
“We do these big sendoffs, we have this chance to recognize them for what they are doing in leaving, but then we go back to our daily lives, we get busy, we forget,” Laudick said the officer told him. “So this is a chance also for us to remember that thousands of troops are overseas serving for us.”
Some of the 5K participants had nametags, with names of the people they were honoring with the run. Laudick’s nametag was for the 133rd Ironman Battalion.
“Today is a chance to have that remembrance for those who served and those who continue to serve,” Laudick told the participants.
He then asked for a moment of silence.
In short order, a horn signaled the beginning of the run. Fire Chief John Zolondek and his son Lucas, a fifth-grader at Aldrich Elementary, were among the runners, for a second year in a row.
Another returning participant, Megan Gerhardt, the fitness coordinator at the Cedar Falls Rec Center, walked the trail slower than usual as she is expecting her second baby in October. Last year, she walked with her first son, Henry, then 1 year old.
“I just thought it was a great event for the community to come together to honor and support the memories,” she said.
Brady Werger, of Waverly, and his friend, Eric Mullins, of Waterloo, walked the trail for the first time.
Werger said he was in third grade on 9/11, so he didn’t understand what was happening that day, but when his mom explained it to him, “it was really shocking.”
As an adult, he started a mindful ritual he practices every year on the anniversary of 9/11.
“I just try to take a moment of silence to remember the people that fought and served our country that day,” he said.