CHAPEL HILL -- Dozens of people gathered on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus Tuesday to dedicate a memorial garden to the six alumni who died during the terrorist attacks six years ago on Sept. 11, 2001.

For a day, Carolina’s blue and white gave way to a sea of red, white and blue. Thousands of American flags flapped in a brisk wind as Chapel Hill students, faculty and alumni gathered to dedicate the memorial and remember the victims lost in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The memorial is a gift from the class of 2005, a class that was touched and changed perhaps most of all from that day.

"For us, the class of 2005, just weeks into our first year at Carolina, they shocked us at a time when we were already experiencing change and uncertainty,” one student said at the service.

"We thought it best to kind of commemorate that day in a way that wasn't necessarily somber but that could be uplifting and a place that families can come and remember and reflect in good ways,” added 2005 Class President Jovian Irvin.

Six UNC Chapel Hill alumni died in the attacks. Liza Adams’ daughter, Mary Lou Hage, was among them and Adams wiped her eyes as she listened to the kind words spoken about her daughter.

"Sometimes it seems like yesterday and sometimes it seems like a lifetime ago,” Adams said. “When you lose a child, it's a wound that never ever heals and never, ever goes away. It’s just the degrees that you feel it, and you learn through the years how to cope with it."

One way for 2005 class members to cope with the loss was to design a simple memorial to create solace.

"It's a very subdued space and a space where people can sit on the wall and have some reflection on what happened,” explained David Swanson, who helped design the memorial.

Six years after the attacks, one thing is very certain: walk anywhere on campus and you'll see a clear message from Carolina students – the victims are gone but will never be forgotten.

If you would like to visit the 9-11 Memorial Garden, it is located on the UNC Chapel Hill campus near the Alumni Center.