For Leading Edge Academy students, 9/11 is history. On Friday, two New Yorkers who witnessed the attacks gave that history a voice.

“You were not alive on Sept 11, 2001, but you can carry these lessons forward. Remember the lives that were lost, remember the heroes that stepped forward, remember how our country came together,” said Leading Edge school counselor Joseph Harvey.

He introduced two speakers who came to share their memories of that day.

Vince Adamo was working directly across from the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I’m not going to tell you I’m a survivor. I was an observer,” Adamo said.

The international banker received a call from his mother shortly after the first plane struck, asking him to look out his skyscraper office window to see what was happening.

At the time, news outlets were reporting that a small jet had crashed into one of the towers. When Adamo opened his blinds, he could see that wasn’t the case.

Cary B. Peskin began with the day after the attacks.

“You may notice this slide says ‘September 12, 2001,’” Peskin said. “You see that blue sky? You couldn’t see the sky the day before. It was buildings then.”

Peskin took students through a slideshow of images showing the impact of the attacks. The images brought the room to silence as students saw the devastation in New York, including people jumping from the towers, ash settling on the streets and the buildings engulfed in flames.

“I can only equate it to a fire-breathing dragon,” Peskin said of the sheer impact.

Both men shared memories that the students could only understand as history, but that history shaped the entire country.

“Sometimes I feel like we have forgotten the lessons that come from that day, but I believe your generation can change that. Put your phones down, talk to your classmates, get to know people, choose kindness,” Harvey said. “‘Never forget’ is not just something we say. It is something we show by how we treat each other.”