On the 11th Anniversary of 9/11, Memorial Dedicated to Lives Lost

On the eve of the 11^thanniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the U.S. Pentagon, hundreds of community members gathered on Sunday evening for the official dedication of a memorial constructed at Carmel Town Hall to honor the lives lost that day.

Just as a nation came together with a common purpose in the days, weeks and months following the attacks, the people of the Town of Carmel, and beyond, joined in a community effort to ensure the steel beams salvaged from Ground Zero, once again, would rise into the sky; now proudly flying the American flag.

In early 2011, Jonathan Schneider, now a Carmel Town Councilman and a Iraq War veteran, shared with Town Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt that artifacts could be obtained from the fallen towers to be used in a memorial.

In June 2011, Town Supervisor Kenneth Schmitt, along with members of the town’s three fire departments, traveled via caravan to a hangar at J.F.K International Airport to bring home the large pieces of steel and work on the memorial began soon after.

Schmitt noted that no taxpayer money was used to complete the memorial, which was paid for entirely through monetary contributions and material and labor donations from more than 150 individuals, families and local businesses.

This past March, a fund-raising dinner organized by the supervisor’s assistant, Anne Pasquerello, brought in more than $14,000, meaning the memorial could be completed by the anniversary this year.

Schmitt also praised Town Engineering Projects Coordinator Rob Vara for having worked tirelessly on a day-to-day basis to coordinate the construction of the memorial.

Schmitt said the steel beams used in the memorial were believed to be from the North Tower and architectural plans were reviewed to ensure the beams were placed as they had once stood as part of the World Trade Center, that is symbolized in the memorial with two granite pillars.

A plaque on the memorial reads in part: “Our community mourns the loss of those who perished in the attacks. The memorial honors and recognizes the lives as well as the spirit of those lost. Their sacrifice inspires our nation to endure.”

Schmitt said the memorial would serve as a constant reminder of the thousands of Americans who were killed that day – including eight Putnam County residents – now and forever.

“It’s not only us and our families, but the generations to come after us; they really need to know what occurred on that fateful day when we were attacked….and that we can never forget,” Schmitt said.

Rev. Kenneth Mast of the First Presbyterian Church in Mahopac delivered the invocation.

“As we gather to dedicate this monument, let us also dedicate ourselves, rekindling that spirit, renewing that common purpose, recommitting ourselves to the honorable, the true, the selfless and the courageous,” Rev. Mast said.

Just before the Mahopac Chamber Choir was set to perform, “America the Beautiful,” the skies darkened and heavy rain began to fall, in what Rabbi Eytan Hammerman of Temple Beth Shalom in Mahopac later described as, “possibly tears from Heaven.”

Inside of town hall, Mahopac resident and retired New York City firefighter Edward Kennedy described his experience arriving on the scene in lower Manhattan with Engine 44 more than a decade ago.

“When I looked up at those two buildings, I knew we weren’t going to be able to put the fire out. I personally didn’t believe they were going to fall,” Kennedy said of the 40 floors that were consumed in flames.

Then, Kennedy said, he saw people jumping from the buildings.

“We’re losing our folks. We can’t save these people. We’ve got to focus on the people we can save,” Kennedy said his lieutenant said to the group of firefighters.

Kennedy said he heard a loud boom and turned to see the top of the first tower come crashing to the ground.

“I ran like hell. It sounded like a freight train, like a hurricane coming after me,” he said.

Kennedy dove under a car just as the debris plume caught up with him. Separated from his company, his fellow firefighters believed for a time he was dead.

As teenagers, who were too young to remember that day, and even younger children, who were not yet born, listened intently to Kennedy, he thanked everyone in the room for paying homage to the 343 firefighters, and the thousands of others, who died in the attacks.

“You people care enough to be here,” he said. “What I saw after 9-11…was the goodness in people.”

Town resident Eric Gross then solemnly read out the names of the Putnam County residents lost on 9-11: Christopher J. Blackwell of Kent [FDNY]; Daniel E. Harlin of Kent [FDNY]; Robert James Minara of Carmel [FDNY]; Thomas J. Kuveikis of Kent [FDNY]; George C. Cain of Patterson [FDNY]; Stephen P. Driscoll of Lake Carmel [FDNY]; David Lawrence William Fodor of Garrison [Fiduciary Trust International; and George Paris of Carmel [Cantor Fitzgerald].

In his convocation, Rabbi Hammerman said that while the Bible may offer hope that the good will be rewarded and the bad punished, that the world is far more complex place and no one may ever understand how, what happened the morning of September 11, 2001, was allowed to happen.

“The hidden things are for God; the revealed things, for us and for our descendants,” Rabbi Hammerman said, citing a Hebrew expression. “Today, outdoors, we were revealed a beautiful piece of art. Most simply, for the fact that it simply shouldn’t be here…that steel wasn’t born to rest in Mahopac. And yet, there it is. And so we welcome this beautiful and meaningful memorial. We thank those whose dedication saw to it that the steel would rise again.”