Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony — Palm Bay, Florida

Palm Bay holds its Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony every September 11, and in 2026 it began at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, September 11, at Sacrifice Park beside Palm Bay City Hall.

The 2026 date was announced in the September 2026 Mayor's Message: on Friday, September 11, at 8:30 a.m., the City of Palm Bay would gather at Sacrifice Park for its annual ceremony (September 2026 Mayor's Message). That year marked 25 years since September 11, 2001, and the October 2026 Mayor's Message reports that the community gathered at Sacrifice Park to honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost (October 2026 Mayor's Message).

The date never moves, because the ceremony is tied to September 11 itself, but the weekday, start time and site in Palm Bay have changed from year to year. Since 2022 the city has used three sites: Palm Bay City Hall, Veterans Memorial Park and Sacrifice Park. The start time has ranged from 8:30 a.m. to noon. The September Mayor's Messages for 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026 mention no ticket or fee.

September 11, 2027 falls on a Saturday, and the October 2026 Mayor's Message gives no time or site for that ceremony (October 2026 Mayor's Message). In 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026 the city announced the ceremony in its September Mayor's Message on palmbayfl.gov.

Palm Bay's ceremony began as an inaugural noon event at City Hall in 2022 and has since shifted to morning start times and, from 2024, to park sites.

Mayor Rob Medina's September 2022 message announced an inaugural Patriot Day Ceremony at Palm Bay City Hall on Sunday, September 11, 2022, at 12:00pm to honor the fallen (September 2022 Mayor's Message). For 2023 the city kept City Hall but moved the start to 8:30am on Monday, September 11 (September 2023 Mayor's Message).

Planning records show the site was already under discussion in 2023. The Palm Bay Recreation Advisory Board minutes of August 1, 2023 list the 9/11 remembrance as the next event, to be held at Veterans Memorial Park, with staff working with the co-sponsor, the American Legion (Recreation Advisory Board minutes, August 1, 2023). The ceremony that year stayed at City Hall, according to the October 2023 Mayor's Message (October 2023 Mayor's Message).

The move came in 2024: on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, the City of Palm Bay held its annual Patriot Day Remembrance Ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park (October 2024 Mayor's Message). In 2025 it moved again, to 10:00am on Thursday, September 11, at Sacrifice Park (September 2025 Mayor's Message), and Sacrifice Park hosted the 8:30 a.m. ceremony again in 2026.

The Palm Bay ceremony is built around guest speakers, a bell ringing and a moment of silence, the format the city described for its 2022 and 2023 ceremonies at City Hall.

The October 2022 Mayor's Message describes the inaugural Palm Bay ceremony as including guest speakers, a bell ringing ceremony and a moment of silence (October 2022 Mayor's Message). In 2023 the moments of silence were held at 8:46am for the North Tower of the World Trade Center and 9:03am for the South Tower, at Palm Bay City Hall (October 2023 Mayor's Message). The 8:30 a.m. starts used in 2023 and 2026 fall just before those two times.

In 2025 the Palm Bay speakers came from the military and veterans community. For the 2025 ceremony at Sacrifice Park, the city named two speakers who had served in Afghanistan: the commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart Chapter 453 and a sergeant who served with the 115th and 44th Medical Brigade (September 2025 Mayor's Message).

Elected officials attended the 2025 Palm Bay ceremony. Afterward, the October 2025 Mayor's Message thanked Senator Mayfield and Representative Miller for joining, and said the gathering paid tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost through remarks, moments of silence and reflections (October 2025 Mayor's Message). The city has also posted video highlights of the 2025 and 2026 ceremonies alongside those messages (October 2026 Mayor's Message).

Sacrifice Park is a memorial park at 120 Malabar Rd SE in Palm Bay, sharing the City Hall address, with an amphitheatre and a memorial area.

The City of Palm Bay park directory lists Sacrifice Park at 120 Malabar Rd SE, Palm Bay, FL 32907, phone (321) 952-3443, with an amphitheatre, benches, a concrete walkway, a memorial area and parking, open 7am until sunset (City of Palm Bay: Sacrifice Park). The September 2025 Mayor's Message places it between City Hall and the Franklin T DeGroodt Memorial Library (September 2025 Mayor's Message). Both City Hall and the park use the 120 Malabar Road SE address in Palm Bay.

The 2024 site, Veterans Memorial Park, is at 2201 Port Malabar Blvd NE in northeast Palm Bay. The park directory lists a memorial area, a gazebo, pavilions, a bathing lake, lighted courts and parking there, open 7am until 10pm (City of Palm Bay: Veterans Memorial Park).

Federal law names September 11 as Patriot Day and asks the President to call on state and local governments, including cities such as Palm Bay, to observe it with appropriate programs, alongside half-staff flags and a moment of silence.

Under 36 U.S.C. 144, September 11 is Patriot Day, the federal observance behind the Palm Bay ceremony. The President is requested to issue a proclamation each year calling on state and local governments and the public to observe the day with appropriate programs and activities, on federal agencies and interested organizations and individuals to display the flag of the United States at half-staff, and on the public to observe a moment of silence in honor of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 (36 U.S.C. 144). The section was added by Public Law 107-89 on December 18, 2001.

The Palm Bay ceremony has included those elements. The city records moments of silence at the 2022, 2023 and 2025 ceremonies, and the October 2023 Mayor's Message records that an American flag was flown at half-staff at Palm Bay City Hall on September 11, 2023; Mayor Rob Medina later presented that flag to a Purple Heart recipient (October 2023 Mayor's Message).

The City of Palm Bay announced the Patriot Day ceremony in the Mayor's Message released at the start of September in 2022, 2023, 2025 and 2026, and reported on it in the October Mayor's Message every year from 2022 to 2026.

Mayor Rob Medina publishes the Mayor's Message each month on palmbayfl.gov to share city news, programs and events, and residents can receive it by email through the Mayor's Message eNotification sign-up (September 2025 Mayor's Message). Every date, time and site in the year table comes from those September announcements and October reports, from 2022 to 2026.

The September messages also place the ceremony among other Palm Bay patriotic programs. The September 2022 message paired the first Patriot Day announcement with the Military Tribute Banner Program, which displays banners honoring service members at Palm Bay City Hall, Veterans Memorial Park and Fred Poppe Regional Park from Veterans Day to Memorial Day (September 2022 Mayor's Message). The city park directory lists (321) 952-3443 as the phone number for both Sacrifice Park (City of Palm Bay: Sacrifice Park) and Veterans Memorial Park (City of Palm Bay: Veterans Memorial Park).