WESTPORT — Governor Ned Lamont and Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz are inviting members of the public to attend the State of Connecticut’s annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony, honoring and celebrating the lives of those killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The ceremony will again be conducted at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. This year’s event is planned for Thursday, September 4, at 5:30 pm.

Family members of those who were killed in the attacks will participate, and the names of the 161 victims with ties to Connecticut will be read aloud.

Every year, the State of Connecticut intentionally holds its official memorial ceremony several days prior to the anniversary in order to accommodate the family members and friends of the victims. Because Connecticut is in such close proximity to New York City, many family members and friends who live in the state choose to also attend the annual ceremony that is held at the site of the World Trade Center on September 11. Scheduling Connecticut’s ceremony on a different day makes it easier for those who wish to attend both ceremonies.

Connecticut’s official memorial honoring the victims of the attacks is located on a peninsula at Sherwood Island State Park, where on a clear day the Manhattan skyline can be viewed across Long Island Sound. The memorial features stones engraved with the names of the people with ties to Connecticut who were killed in the attacks.

The state park was chosen as the site for the memorial because it is the location where, in the hours immediately following the attacks on 9/11, many people gathered to observe the smoke and devastation on Lower Manhattan from across Long Island Sound. Additionally, the site was used immediately after the attacks by the Connecticut National Guard as a staging area for Connecticut’s relief efforts to New York City.

The memorial was constructed, in part, with funds from the US Forest Service Living Memorials Project grant program. Monies from the grant were used, along with private donations of money, time and material to build the memorial.

When the viewer faces the inscription on the memorial stone they are oriented across the Sound to the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City. The inscription reads “The citizens of Connecticut dedicate this living memorial to the thousands of innocent lives lost on September 11, 2001 and to the families who loved them.”

The memorial was dedicated during ceremonies in September 2002.

No remains are interred at the memorial.

Bio-plaques, designed by Connecticut graphic artists Mary Ann Rumney and Ruth Baxter and a sculpture, by Connecticut artists David Boyajian and Matt Rink, incorporating artifacts from the World Trade Center, were installed in the park’s main pavilion and dedicated during ceremonies commemorating the tenth anniversary in September 2011.