Monday will mark the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, and people across the nation will spend the day in their own way to remember the tragedies.

In the North End, residents have been invited to two events that will mark the terrorist attacks on America.

The North Kitsap Fire & Rescue crew will host a breakfast for the public, served by its firefighters. Residents are invited to stop by the NKF&R Headquarters, 26642 Miller Bay Road NE, between 7 and 10 a.m. for eggs, sausage, potatoes and fruit, donated by the Clearwater Casino, and special “firehouse coffee.”

“This is about the community receiving a deliberate act of kindness and compassion in the name of those who can no longer do so,” said NKF&R public information officer Michèle Laboda, adding that firefighters were not the only people lost on 9/11. “This isn’t about the firefighters. This is about bringing people together to sit at the same long table with neighbors they haven’t met yet.”

“I think what we’re looking at doing is kind of a memorial for all the people killed that day,” said NKF&R Chief Paul Nichol. “The first year we did a real solemn event with flag lowering. We’re doing something because we just don’t want to forget. Let’s not forget.”

NKF&R will accept donations during the breakfast, all of which will go to Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society.

The Poulsbo Fire Department is also hosting a 9/11 tribute in the form of an open house from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday. The day will include a moment of silence at 10 a.m., respecting the fall of the South Tower at 9:59 Eastern Daylight Time.

“This has brought a greater awareness of what we do everyday,” said Poulsbo Fire Department Chief Jim Shields. “Of course, we don’t have two towers that collapsed here, but the events on 9/11 reached all of us.”

North End residents will be able to tour the Poulsbo Fire Department, meet firefighters and write notes of remembrance during the open house. Shields said the event will provide an opportunity for the public and firefighters to meet in a non-emergency environment to get to know each other.

“This was such a profound experience for many people,” Laboda said, adding that the firefighters killed during 9/11 were a small percentage of the people who lost their lives. “It was not unique to firefighters to suffer that day.”

Both Shields and Laboda encourage the public to attend one or both events, to honor those who were lost on Sept. 11.

“I think we’re grateful it didn’t happen in our jurisdiction, and we remember the people who died because it was in theirs,” Nichol said. “Our hope here is that people just don’t forget (9/11) happened.”

“I suspect that in North Kitsap there is more than a few people who knew somebody who was killed,” Shields said. “It touched each and everyone of us very deeply.”