We all remember it, the moment that first plane tore a gaping hole through the World Trade Center — and through the collective heart of the country. And we’ll remember it with particular poignancy on September 11, 2002. Bostonians — personalities, business owners, professionals — have chosen innumerable ways to commemorate that day. Here are some of them.

I went to NYC a few weeks after 9/11 and was able to worm my way into Ground Zero, and so I have a keen memory of what the site was like then, in the beginning stages of the clearing away and looking for remains. I think that since I had the opportunity nightly to talk about the event and its meaning, as best we could figure it out, I was able to keep from having that sense of isolation and despair that many people experienced. My hope is that on September 11, I’ll think back on those days of discussion and mutual comforting rather than relive the sense of terror we all had the day of the event and for a few days thereafter. In other words, my hope is that it’ll be, for me, a time for reconsideration, not one for anguishing. We all did a great deal of anguishing a year ago.

My station is broadcasting all day from NYC, and I’m doing my program from 7 to 10. [At press time] we haven’t a guest list yet, but our aim is to get some significant writers or commentators, perhaps some survivors. It’ll probably be somewhat chaotic, since so many stations are airing from Ground Zero, as are we.

— David Brudnoy, WBZ Radio talk-show host

Last year [on September 11], I spent the hours during the day and evening watching footage and news with [musician] Jen Trynin and [producer] Mike Denneen, who had both recently become good friends of mine. They’d called me that day at my bookstore, inviting me over. The events were surreal to me that morning, too great and overwhelming to grasp at the time. Being with them grounded me in what was happening and gave me the emotional support that helped me through the day. I’d like to spend the evening again with them, watching and remembering.

As far as my bookstore is concerned, I tried to host events that week that would benefit my patrons during this time of remembrance. We’re hosting Rabbi Harold Kushner for a reading from his book, Living a Life that Matters [Vintage, 2001], at Temple Shalom in Newton.

— Tim Huggins, owner, Newtonville Books

I will be at home in Boston at several events that will honor the Massachusetts citizens who lost their lives on September 11th, as well as the heroes who climbed those stairs of the World Trade Center to put their lives on the line to save others. It will also be a day of quiet remembrance of citizens like Dan Petithory, a Green Beret from Cheshire, Massachusetts, who gave his life in Afghanistan trying to break the back of the Taliban and give that country a chance at peace and freedom.

— Massachusetts senator John Kerry

I will be at the opening of "A Nation Mourns and Artists Respond," at the Fitchburg Art Museum. Art inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. As I am often in the office of the museum, I’ve seen some of the pieces and spoken to some of the artists already, and am impressed by the transcendent nature of the work. As history rolls along, all that’s left of any human event are words and pictures, and this exhibit includes all that.

— Symboline Dai, astrologer

I’m going to stay as far away from the television as possible, and I’m going to celebrate life by going out and supporting my local rock band. I’d suggest everyone do the same!

— Dan Millen, Harpers Ferry talent buyer

We can take comfort in the fact that across vast expanses of time and culture, civilizations and individuals have overcome great loss. This is evident nowhere more clearly than in the galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts. A walk through the museum reminds me that we, too, will find our way through this time to a better place. Our self-guided tour is meant to help people in that process. Everyone should come open to finding in our galleries something that brings them peace, commemoration, understanding — whatever it is they are looking for to mark the day. For some, it will be a commemorative tomb, for others a ritual object from one of many religions represented in the collection, and still for others it will be, quite simply, a beautiful painting or object.

I’ll be at the museum all day and evening on September 11, and I particularly look forward to seeing visitors use the galleries as places of contemplation. The musical performances will add another dimension that will make the day different from other days in the museum. Culminating with the Boston Community Choir, the program should be very moving.

— Katie Getchell, Deputy Director for Curatorial Administration, Museum of Fine Arts

I’m going with a full media blackout for 9/11. No radio, newspaper, or TV. Instead, I’m going to go about my business of writing and avoiding writing. I might pause, toward dusk (if the light seems plangent), to consider how precious life is, how quickly and stupidly it can be snatched from us, and how crucial it is, therefore, to love those around us, and to express that love. If we get one of those quasi-religious sunsets — the red sun, the vermilion sky — I’ll probably offer a little prayer. Not to God, but to good old humankind, in the hopes that we can awaken the mercy inside of us before it’s too late. Then I’ll go to sleep.

— Steve Almond, author, My Life in Heavy Metal

As a venue, we have opted to "go dark" on September 11, with no event scheduled. But as co-workers, like many in the community, we wanted to do something patriotic that day to honor the memory of those who lost their lives and the heroes who currently strive to defend ours. With that in mind, we’ve ordered 10,000 small American flags that our FleetCenter staff plans on passing out the morning of September 11 to commuters in North Station and to workers headed into the Federal Building next door.

For me, September 11 will always be a day to remember the loss and the heroes, to hug my wife and children more tightly, and to raise the flag proudly.

— Jim Delaney, Director of Marketing and PR, FleetCenter

We will be hosting a show called "No Time to Say Goodbye," a year of memorials from 9/11 photos, by Mark Halevi, of the most touching memorials from NYC. We are inviting people to come with their own memorials on that day.

— Terry DeLancey, Executive Director, Agassiz Neighborhood Council/Sacramento Street Gallery

This year, Club Passim is putting together a benefit for the Mass 9/11 Fund on the anniversary of the tragedy. Last year, less than a week after the attacks, Club Passim held two nights of benefits for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, raising almost $14,000 for the cause. As Club Passim is a very community-oriented place, we realized that we couldn’t have September 11th be a "business as usual" sort of night — so many of the same artists that played the Red Cross benefits last year are coming back to help out at the Mass 9/11 Fund Benefit this year (Rob Laurens, Brian Webb, James O’Brien, Christopher Williams, Karaugh Brown, Jonathan Pointer, Karim Mohammed, Don White, Geoff Bartley, The Resophonics, Rachel McCartney, Catie Curtis, Rose Polenzani, Meghan Toohey). Although the initial shock of the attack has subsided, there is much work that still needs to be done in terms of relief, prevention, education and tolerance. Club Passim continues to want to be a part of the process in any way we can.

— Matt Smith, Music Operations Manager, Club Passim

Last year [on September 11], we were just gathering together as a team on our first day of training camp and I remember the shock of the news and remember fearing I had lost people that I knew and cared about. This year, September 11 falls on the day before we open up camp, so I’ll be getting ready for that. But our minds will be on the families affected by the tragedy. They will definitely be in my thoughts, and we’ll be praying for them.

— Hal Gill, defenseman, Boston Bruins

I keep hearing about people who plan on doing nothing to mark the 9/11 anniversary. Just going through their day’s activities as normal, without even a pause to acknowledge the death and horror that occurred just a year ago. I can’t imagine treating it as an ordinary day.

I’m taking the day off work. I can’t handle being in an office building that day. Everything in my cubicle reminds me of the cubicle that I used to sit in at the World Trade Center before I moved to Boston last summer — turning in my WTC security badge just two months before September.

Last year, I watched the television in shock. I called friends in NYC to make sure they were safe. We cried together across phone lines for the ones that were not safe. I grew angry and yelled a lot. I wanted revenge. I supported the war. Any war that I thought would "fix this."

This year, I’m still angry, but I’m not yelling as much. On 9/11/02, I’m going to go and sit for the morning with the Cambridge Meeting of Friends (Quakers). In the afternoon, my partner and I will take down the US flag we hung on September 12, 2001, and replace it with a peace flag we recently purchased. That evening, we plan on lighting two rows of candles on our walkway.

We lit several candles on 9/11/01 for the friends that my friend Annie lost in NYC. We kept them lit constantly throughout the three weeks that she searched the morgues and hospitals of Manhattan for their remains. After three weeks, the families filed for death certificates and gave up hope of finding them. We took down the candles.

I’m putting up two candles on one side of the walk and three candles on the other. To represent 2WTC, 23rd floor — where I worked. While lighting the candles, I plan on incorporating bits of prayers used in the Jewish practice of Yahrzeit. Yahrzeit seems especially appropriate, as it’s a way to remember the anniversary of so many peoples’ deaths, but to also make a commitment to move on.

That seems right to me.

— Kristie Helms, publications coordinator, Tufts Health Plan

I think we will be community/neighborhood–focused and provide space for people to socialize in a professional, fun, and funky atmosphere.

— Andy Husbands, chef/owner, Tremont 647

I am planning on going to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum — a place where one can spend some quiet, contemplative time. I also will attend a presentation at the museum by photographer Eugene Richards, who will be showing slides from his new book Stepping Through the Ashes [Aperture], a photographic elegy to those lost [on September 11]. Janine Altongy will be reading excerpts from the book.

— Kate Shamon, publicist

Since 9/11, beginning the first week they were flying again, I have flown pretty nonstop all over the world. But the one place I have not been able to bring myself to fly into is New York City (something I usually had done about once a month). So ... I think I will both make a statement and conquer that fearful barrier within myself and make a flight pilgrimage to New York on that day.

— Jeremy Alliger, Executive Producer, Jeremy Presents; Dance Umbrella founder

I anticipate that September 11th will be a day for reflection and tribute. Personally I cannot imagine doing "business as usual" on the anniversary of this national tragedy. We will open at noon, and I plan on allocating the time between 8:46 and 10:29 a.m. to visit Boston Common and the 9/11 Memorial Allée of 11 trees that Shreve dedicated last November as a living tribute to those who lost their lives. I also plan to join in the community events at Trinity Church. My thoughts will focus on remembrance and the many acts of kindness and heroism that resulted from September 11.

We will open Shreve, Crump & Low in Boston and Chestnut Hill at noon. We will honor the day with a meaningful message in our store windows. We have all experienced great personal loss over the past year and we will invite our colleagues and clients to take the morning to reflect in a way that is most comfortable for them.

— Jacqueline Grande Raffi, Interim President, Shreve, Crump & Low