9/11 Memorial Help Sought

9/11 memorial help sought

Residents can submit personal expressions

HOW TO HELP
The 9/11 Memorial Committee of the Southern Tier is looking for reflections and personal expressions to be included in the memorial it plans to construct on State Street near Binghamton city hall and across from the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Selected submissions must fit on a 3-by-5-foot panel.

Visit www.cityofbinghamton.com for details and a submission form. Forms and guidelines also can be picked up at city hall and fire stations in Binghamton, Johnson City and Endicott.
Mail or drop off all submissions at city hall. The address is: City Hall, 9/11 Memorial Competition, 38 Hawley St., Binghamton, N.Y. 13901 by 5 p.m. Friday. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope if you want to receive a registration acknowledgement by mail. Entries will be kept anonymous.

Donations payable to "The 9/11 Memorial in the City of Binghamton" can be mailed to City of Binghamton, 38 Hawley St., Binghamton, N.Y. 13901.

By Liz HackenPress & Sun-Bulletin

Jerry Marinich doesn't want anyone to forget.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Marinich was in New York City attending firefighter training. An instructor came into the class and reported a plane had hit the World Trade Center. The Broome County legislator thought it was a training exercise to test what they would do to prepare.
By noon, he was at Ground Zero.

"It was a life-changing event, whether you knew someone who lost their life on that day or not," he said.

To make sure no one in the region forgets the tragedy of that day, Marinich and others have been working on a Sept. 11 memorial on State Street, across from the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

Organizers hope at least the footprint of the memorial will be ready to unveil in September -- the five-year anniversary of the attacks. They're now looking for personal reflections and expressions to be etched on nine glass panels to make the memorial unique to the Southern Tier.

Reflections can include:
* Recognition of those who responded to the tragedies that day.
* A narrative or symbolic timeline and description of the events.
* Something that represents the attacks at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa.

The deadline for submissions is Friday.
"A lot of other memorials are plaques on stones that get overgrown and lost," committee member Tracy Poplawski said. "It's simple, but it's there for the community."

The memorial's centerpiece will be a 4-foot I-beam from the north tower of the World Trade Center. Binghamton is one of 55 cities to have a piece of steel from the towers, Poplawski said. The city parks department is guarding the beam until the memorial is ready.


"They treat it like the American flag," Marinich said. "It hasn't touched the ground."
The memorial is expected to cost $300,000 with two-thirds of that coming from in-kind donations of labor and materials. So far, about $5,500 of that $100,000 goal has been raised through donations and a golf tournament.

"I understand people want to move on, but if we don't memorialize it we will forget," Marinich said. "It was an attack on our way of life."