The annual event honors local safety personnel.

By Mary O’KEEFE

For the past 11 years the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce (CVCOC) and the Early Rodders, a hotrod and classic car group, have held a motorcade as part of the Patriot Day recognition on Sept. 11. 

Dwight Sityar, Steve Pierce and Jean Maluccio, who were all members of the CVCOC 11 years ago, founded the 9/11 Patriot Day Motorcade. Community members and students across the valley gathered each year to see first responder vehicles, classic cars, muscle cars and hot rods drive past on Sept. 11 in recognition of Patriot Day. The purpose of the motorcade was to draw attention to first responders, remember the people who died in the terror attacks and add emphasis to the American mantra of “Never Forget.”

The event focuses on early responders, including fire and law enforcement personnel, who run toward emergencies as everyone else flees. 

Patriot Day was designated on Dec. 18, 2001 as a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress. Beginning at 8:46 a.m. EST, the time the first airplane struck the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans are asked to honor those who lost their lives.  

“Nineteen terrorists from al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, deliberately crashing two of the planes into the upper floors of the north and south towers of the World Trade Center complex and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The Twin Towers ultimately collapsed because of the damage sustained from the impacts and the resulting fires. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about 20 minutes by air from Washington, D.C. The attacks [ultimately] killed 2,977 people from 93 nations: 2,753 people were killed in New York; 184 people were killed at the Pentagon; and 40 people were killed on Flight 93,” according to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. 

Among those victims were 343 New York City firefighters, 23 New York City police officers and 37 officers of the Port Authority.

The 9/11 motorcade, which travels throughout the Crescenta Valley, consists of about 50 classic and hotrod vehicles, along with fire trucks, law enforcement vehicles and vehicles representing other early responders. The motorcade travels past several schools in the area where students are found out front, with their teachers and administrators, holding signs thanking the first responders. 

In the CV area those who line the motorcade route scream out “thank you” to the early responders and specifically to those who respond to wildfires. 

The motorcade begins at 8:20 a.m. in the Ralph’s Marketplace parking lot. The route covers 14 schools in Glendale and La Cañada Flintridge unified school districts. A map of the route is included in this article. 

This year, morning coffee and a post motorcade barbecue for drivers and first responders is being held and is sponsored by the incoming La Crescenta Planet Fitness. Pierce thanked Planet Fitness for supporting the community. Planet Fitness is scheduled to open in mid-September at the former site of Rite Aid in the Ralph’s Marketplace. 

At the end of the motorcade a solemn event will be held by the drivers and first responders to remember the victims of 9/11. 

2026-Patriot-Day-Motorcade-Map