Fairfax Station resident Rita Clarke rubbed her hand along her arm, trying to soothe the goosebumps she got from hearing the stories of Sept. 11 at the "Band of Honor" fundraising table at the Virginian soccer tournament on May 24.
"I have heard more stories, it's depressing, you hear these stories," she said, listening to Robin Desonia, also of Fairfax Station.
"My friends were on the plane that hit the Pentagon, they were carrying the ashes of their relative to spread over Pearl Harbor," Desonia said.
Clarke and Helene Brock were among the seven mothers who deemed themselves "Moms with a Mission." The bracelets, similar to the POW/MIA bracelets of the Vietnam War era, were sold for donation money which all went to a special scholarship fund called the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund for education assistance for the dependents of those killed or disabled as a result of the terrorist attacks.
"Our kids know they're helping the kids that lost their parents," Clarke said.
Reston resident Kim Gray's daughter was in the day care center in the Pentagon but on the other side from where the plane hit.
"Not a day goes by when I think how lucky I am that my daughter wasn't on that side of the building," she said.
"This is what comes to the tables all day, it chills," she said.
Clarke manned the table with Helene Brock of Lorton, collecting money for bracelets while their children hung out with the players from the 708 other teams that were at the Fair Lakes Hyatt.
Brittany Clarke, 14, knows the attacks will go down in history.
"It's always something we're going to remember," she said.
Alexandria resident Kate O'Conner, 14, also has the day on her mind.
"I think about it everyday when I wake up, I think something is going to happen. It scares me," she said.
The rest of the "moms" include Liz Bradshear and Lorie Joseph from Fairfax Station, Becky Johns, Lee Walter and Diane Pohanka from Alexandria.
THE BRACELETS are emblazoned with nine different varieties of emblems, each for a different aspect of Sept. 11. Each of the different flights are represented, the Pentagon, World Trade Center, New York fire and police departments, and one with no symbol. The boys seem to be attracted to the fire department symbols, Clarke said.
"We've had a few people engrave the name of someone they know on the back," she said.
With all the charitable drives since September, the mothers shopped around for the right charity. Clarke noted their efforts.
"When we started the process we started with the Red Cross but they had trouble delegating the money. We went with the Friends of Freedom to get the money in the right hands," Clarke said.