By By Andrew Roberto Variety News Staff

Copyright mvariety

DOZENS of firefighters, police officers, and island residents participated in the 2025 Freedom Walk on Monday in Garapan.

The annual event takes place in September across the nation. The Freedom Walk commemorates the Sept. 11 terror attacks and also honors firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel, and first responders. Locally, the event is organized by Tan Holdings Corp. and its charitable arm, Tan Siu Lin Foundation.

On Monday, marchers began at the Carolinian Utt and walked north to American Memorial Park’s flag circle, where Tan Holdings and the Tan Siu Lin Foundation hosted a commemorative ceremony. En route, marchers paused to watch the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services perform a water cannon salute. They arrived at the flag circle by passing through the mall at American Memorial Park, where dozens of U.S. flags had been staked into the ground as a “Field of Heroes” in honor of first responders.

In a keynote address, NMI Red Cross Board Chairman Joshua Wise honored both civilian and first responder victims of 9/11.

“We gather on this Field of Heroes, the garden of flags that we began in 2016 as a simple, powerful idea to create a space where our community can see its protectors, remember their sacrifices, and begin to heal,” Wise said. “Year after year, this field has stood as a promise that within the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands — from Saipan to Tinian to Rota — we will show up for one another.”

He reflected on the resilience first responders must show in their work, saying it is “the courage to answer the call at 2 a.m., the discipline to do the right thing when no one is watching, the humility to ask for help when the weight gets heavy, and the love to keep serving people you may never meet.”

Wise also highlighted the sacrifices first responders make in times of crises:

“Many of us remember nights when the wind did not sleep and the sea would not rest. We remember downed power lines, blocked roads, loved ones missing, and we remember who came. We remember the EMT who didn’t get home for 36 hours, the officer who sat with a family until news finally came, the firefighter who crawled into darkness, the nurse who learned new protocols overnight, the utility crews climbing a pole in the rain so a dialysis machine could hum again. Resilience is not just bouncing back — it is bouncing forward together.”

He encouraged first responders to acknowledge the mental health toll of their work. “Behind every uniform is a human being seeing what most of us hope we never will: stress, trauma, exhaustion. They do not stay at the scene — they ride home in the passenger seat. Asking for help is not weakness; it is wisdom. It takes courage to run into a burning building. It also takes courage to sit with a counselor, peer, or friend and say, ‘I’m not okay, but I want to be.’ ”

Wise also recognized the sacrifices of families: “Parents, spouses, children, and other loved ones bear the invisible burden of late-night worries, missed birthdays, and more. To our heroes in uniform, and those who have laid theirs down, you carry our trust. You also carry our gratitude. Your community sees you, stands with you, and believes with you that weary seasons are not the end of the story.”

The Field of Heroes ceremony concluded with a memorial wreath laying and a 21-gun salute.