A very special stitching ceremony was held Gilmer High School in Ellijay, Georgia on July 30, 2011 where Noah Harris had attended school. The ceremony was in connection with the New York Says Thank You annual build program which helped build an animal barn in Ellijay for Susan Littlejohn. Susan lost all during the massive tornado outbreak in the southeast in the spring of 2011.
Noah Harris joined the military after 9/11 because as he told his father when he came home from college, he wanted to serve a purpose greater than himself. He was deployed to Iraq and quickly made a name for himself with the local children by handing out Beanie Babies wherever he would go. Lt. Harris was killed by a roadside bomb in Buquba, Iraq.
The red patch used in the ceremony was made from a flag that flew over Gilmer High School and was picked out by Noah’s parents, Rick and Lucy Harris. Red stripes from the flag were used to create a 18 inch by 30 inch patch which was sewn into the National 9/11 Flag 78 inches from the blue field on the 11th stripe (red).
There were 323 people who placed a stitch during the ceremony including members of the military as well as members of Noah’s family and members of Susan Littlejohn’s family.
The remaining material from the flag was returned to Rick and Lucy Harris.
Members of the Flag Tour Team present at the ceremony include Jeff Parness, Denny and Carolyn Deters, Wendy Hauser, Lori Sullivan and Jill Adkins and FDNY firefighters Jimmy Sands, Brian Fitzpatrick and Jack Walis.
The location of the Noah Harris patch is outlined on the picture below.
