BATON ROUGE — Students at Martin Luther King Jr. Christian Academy marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with a day of lessons, crafts and a visit from the Baton Rouge Fire Department.

Principal Deloris Newman said the event was designed to reach every student at the school, from pre-K through 8th grade.

"9/11 is so important that it impacted children beginning at pre-K is where we start, all the way to 8th grade is where we go," Newman said. "Because of the families that were impacted during 9/11."

Newman said the school set up several activities in the cafeteria, including a hero board where students used candy and tape to create figures representing those who lost their lives on Sept. 11. Students also put together art kits to give to children affected by disasters and planned to prepare hygiene kits to distribute to the community at a later date.

Firefighters from the Baton Rouge Fire Department attended, talking to students about fire safety and showing off their gear. Newman said seeing the firefighters in person made an impression.

"The impact of seeing those guys on hand in person in those uniforms and seeing the truck and being able to understand how important that is in your daily life and how critical it is that they are here for us during the time of crisis," Newman said.

Captain Trey O'Brien of the Baton Rouge Fire Department said visits like this one are part of a broader effort to connect with students, not just around Sept. 11 but throughout the year.

"9/11 is especially important to teach kids nowadays because none of them were born prior to 9/11," O'Brien said. "Even 2 of our firefighters were not born prior to 9/11, and it was a tragedy for the United States, and the unity that was formed after speaks volumes of what we can do as a country if we come together."

Firefighter Seth Stevenson said the goal is to make sure future generations understand what happened and what followed.

"When that happened and everything that happened after, we all made a vow to never forget," Stevenson said. "The thing that we can do to make sure that we don't and future generations don't is to talk about how we came together as a country and as a nation through all walks of life and how we overcame all that tragedy and learned from it."

Students spoke with WBRZ on the lesson it taught them.

"I learned that when we face tragedy, we can come as one and help what is needed to be helped, and we will still be doing better," one student said.