Five years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001 are still remembered every Tuesday at Hopkins Manufacturing in Emporia.
Just a few weeks after two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, another struck the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field, Kansas Graphics in Cottonwood Falls began producing patriotic T-shirts that had “9•11•01” written inside a heart on the sleeve. Cheryl Adcock, a shift supervisor at Hopkins, purchased one of the shirts and wore it to work.
“A few people started asking me where I’d gotten it and said they wanted one,” Adcock said. “And then everybody started asking me. I had to start taking orders.”
Today, nearly 75 Hopkins employees still wear their shirts every Tuesday to honor the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001. It’s a tradition that’s become habit to many employees.
“When it’s Tuesday, you just know that’s what you’re gonna wear,” said Linda Gillen, department manager at Hopkins. “You don’t even think about it anymore, You just put it on.”
Adcock said she didn’t have to work very hard to sell the idea of wearing the shirts to her coworkers. The shirts sold themselves. The employees decided to wear them every Tuesday, because it was a Tuesday morning when the attacks occurred.
“It’s our way of remembering the people who lost their lives that day,” Adcock said. “We don’t want anyone to forget what happened. This is how we show that we remember them.”
Since the war in Iraq began, some Hopkins employees began wearing red shirts on Fridays to remember the soldiers fighting overseas. Adcock said many of the same employees wear the shirts both days every week.
“We all know Tuesday is blue shirt day and you wear your red shirt on Friday,” said Linda Hedges, department manager at Hopkins. “I guess we’re just followers out here.”
“But everybody does this because they want to,” Adcock said.
John Gaska, human resources director for Hopkins, said the company supports the idea of the employees showing their patriotism. Gaska said many visitors to the plant have commented on the shirts as well.
“Visitors often notice and say something about it,” Gaska said. “I think they’re surprised by it.”
After five years of the tradition, some employees that had shirts have left the company. Some new employees have been unable to buy shirts, and some say their shirts are wearing thin. Adcock said she’s taking orders for a new batch of shirts now. This time around, Kansas Graphics is making the design in sweatshirts and hoodies, too. Adcock said she and many employees plan to buy a new shirt.
“I see the shirts all over town,” Adcock said. “You see them all over, especially in Chase County. I think it’s neat.”
Although the shirts have brought the company and its employees some attention, Gillen said that has nothing to do with why they still keep up the tradition. For them, wearing the shirts has a deeper meaning.
“Just thinking of all the people that lost their lives,” Gillen said. “That feeling of sorrow for the people who lost their family members. That’s why we do it.”
And they don’t plan to stop anytime soon. Adcock said they will wear the red shirts on Fridays until all the troops come home. As for the Sept. 11 shirts, Adcock said, “We’ll keep doing it until the shirts wear out.”