Tri-Municipal 9/11 Remembrance Memorial Group Seek Funding
By Rick Pezzullo
Slowly but surely, donations for a planned tri-municipal 9/11 Remembrance Memorial that will be built at Croton Landing in Croton-on-Hudson are beginning to add up, but a major financial backer is still being sought.
“In this economy, we’ve done really well,” said Janet Mainiero, a Croton resident and project director for the memorial, which is being jointly supported by the Town of Cortlandt and the villages of Croton and Buchanan. “We haven’t been at it too long.”
Officials were hoping to possibly break ground on the project for the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but that turned out to be too ambitious. The target date is now September 11, 2012.
The memorial, called “Reaching Through the Shadow,” will feature a 14-foot-long steel beam that was once part of the north tower of the World Trade Center and was transported to Cortlandt last February. The design, submitted by Croton resident James Rhodes, depicts an approximately six-foot-high woman, representing life, reaching up towards a steel girder, a gesture that represents hope.
It is only projected to take one to two months to complete the construction. The hurdle remains raising the estimated $200,000. To date, Mainiero said 10 to 15% of the necessary funding has been secured. She said the bulk of the money needs to be in place by the end of March to realistically reach the goal of building the memorial this year.
“We’re still hopeful. We’re also looking at construction companies who may be able to donate equipment and labor,” she said.
Most of the donations have come from local businesses and community efforts. For example, Croton Auto donated $2,000, a First Responders Golf Event at Hollow Brook brought in approximately $5,000 and Buchanan Family Day raised $500. Lafarge gypsum in Buchanan also made a donation.
The next scheduled fundraiser is Sunday, February 12 at The Cove in Peekskill, where Tommy Sullivan, founding member and musical director of the original Brooklyn Bridge, will be performing.
“We’re looking forward to a lot of people showing up,” Mainiero said. “We’re going to have a good time. It should be a lot of fun.”
Mainiero said the 9/11 Remembrance Memorial group also has to fight against a certain lack of interest in one of the darkest days in American history now that the 10th anniversary has past and many other memorials have been built.
“All the more we need to press on,” she said. “We need to have these kinds of memorials so the children who haven’t been born yet will see it and ask what happened. I’m hoping anything that is out there that talks about that day will remind people here is an organization in your backyard that is trying to do something special.”
Tickets for the February 12 event are $35 per person and can be purchased by sending a check to BCC 9-11 Memorial, PO Box 153, Buchanan, N.Y, 10511. For further information, contact Mainiero at (914) 271-8222 or Bob Pidgeon at (914) 497-2751.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.