As we enter the 25th year since the terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001, it’s a good time to remember Canada’s Operation Yellow Ribbon (or perhaps learn about it for the first time), when our ally to the north welcomed an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 airline passengers from around the world, waylaid for days during a time of international upheaval and uncertainty.
Though loss and sadness mark most memories of that time, the TonyR Award-winning musical Come From Away offers the truth of human kindness to remember alongside the tragedy. The show opened the 2025-26 season at Farmer’s Alley Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo on Friday, Sept. 26.
Directed by Kathy Mulay, Come From Away is about the town of Gander, Newfoundland, which had 9,000 residents when 6,600 stranded travelers on 38 international flights landed in their town. Theirs was one of 17 Canadian airports that hosted more than 200 aircraft when U.S. airspace shut down that morning…