One just has to pass the fountain near the Journal Square PATH Station that has the names of the 37 Jersey City residents who died on Sept. 11, 2001 to be reminded of the local ramifications of that tragic day.
Or the granite monoliths in Newport across from Lower Manhattan where the World Trade Center once stood, dedicated to all the victims at the World Trade Center.
There will be several events occurring throughout the city to commemorate one of the most tragic days in American history. It is also a date that saw hundreds of injured people brought by ferry and helicopter to Liberty State Park to be treated at impromptu medical camps and at the old Jersey City Medical Center.List of events
City holds its own 9/11 ceremony
T he City of Jersey City will hold a ceremony this Friday, Sept. 10 in honor of the 37 residents of Jersey City who died three years ago. The ceremony will take place at the foot of Grand Street, where the temporary 9/11 Memorial is currently located. The title of this year’s event is “Reflections.” Among the speakers for the event will be Acting Mayor L. Harvey Smith, along with some family members of those 9/11 victims from Jersey City. There will also a poetry reading during the ceremony.
Stan Eason, press aide for Mayor Smith, said that there will be a “Reflections” book engraved with the names of the 37 Jersey City 9/11 victims where people can write their names and thoughts. The book will be placed on display in City Hall for about a month after the ceremony. For more information, contact the Department of Cultural Affairs at (201) 547-6721.
Dedication at Liberty State Park
A site dedication will be held on Sept. 10 at 3:30 PM at Liberty State Park, where a Sept. 11 memorial will be built honoring the 710 New Jersey residents killed in the attacks. This will be followed by a reception with Gov. James McGreevey for the families of those victims.
The memorial is known as “Empty Sky,” designed by New York architect Frederic Schwartz, whose submission was the winning entry selected among 320 in the nationwide competition sponsored by the state of New Jersey. “Empty Sky” consists of two stainless steel walls that will stretch 200 feet long and rise 30 feet high, symbols of the fallen Twin Towers. The memorial will be placed at the northeast end of Liberty State Park, in the plaza area near the old CRRNJ Terminal. For more information, call (609) 777-1248.
Memorial fountain
A ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial Fountain in Journal Square will take place starting at 6 p.m. Saturday to remember the 36 Jersey City residents who died at the World Trade Center, and the one on Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
The organizer of the ceremony, Pat O’Melia, said that the idea for the ceremony came to him one summer night in 2002.
“I was walking out of the Loew’s Theater one night and I saw the fountain and saw that it was wasn’t working. It was just dead,” said O’Melia. O’Melia said that he saw the opportunity for the fountain to be put to use for a great cause.
The fountain had been built in 1994 as part of the Journal Square Redevelopment Plan under former Mayor Bret Schundler’s administration.
“I met with [late Mayor Glenn] Cunningham and convinced him to allow me to have the names engraved on the fountain,” said O’Melia, who then retained the services of local company Burns Bros. to engrave the names of the victims on the fountain.
O’Melia then organized the first ceremony that was held in 2002, which was attended by families who lost loved ones and others who wanted to remember that day, including Cunningham. Awards were handed out to recognize those Jersey City residents who volunteered their time to help others on that day.
This year’s event will again see awards being handed out. O’ Melia will be organizing the event with a reception to be held after the ceremony at the Loew’s Theater. He says that this event will continue to be held every year for as long as he is alive.
“People tell me ‘Pat, it’s three years already,’ but I say to them that I don’t care if it’s 30 years,” he said. “I will continue to hold this ceremony in memory of all those who lost their lives on Sept. 11.”
For more information on the ceremony, contact O’Melia at (201) 963-6700.
Newport ceremony
Another remembrance ceremony for World Trade Center victims and their families will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sept. 11 at Newport Town Square, located at the corner of Pavonia Avenue and River Drive South in Jersey City. This candlelight vigil will include a live concert featuring classical music, to be played throughout the event.
“Located directly across the river from where the Twin Towers once stood, Jersey City residents deeply felt the heartbreak caused by the tragedy of 9/11,” said Jennifer Caluri, Newport’s marketing director. “Our candlelight ceremony is simultaneously a tribute to those we lost as well as a celebration of life.”
A series of granite monoliths was installed in 2003 to create an abstract tribute to the World Trade Center tragedy by highlighting the void that was created on Sept. 11, 2001. Visitors can look through the monoliths that line the walkway that cuts through Newport Town Square to see the space where the towers once stood in Lower Manhattan.
Michael Nestor, inspector general for the Port Authority and a resident of Newport, had escaped from his 77th Floor office in Tower Number One at the World Trade Center before the building had collapsed.
“Three to five more minutes, and I wouldn’t be doing this interview,” said Nestor. (For more on Nestor and the personal accounts of others on Sept. 11, 2001, see the next week’s newspaper.)
For more information on the Newport ceremony, call Jennifer Caluri at (718) 575-4810.
In the parks
The Friends of Liberty State Park and the Liberty State Park Conservancy are hosting a Memorial Planting that will take place near the old CRRNJ Terminal from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m on Sept. 11. Beginner gardeners are welcome.
According to Maria Wakefield, seasonal gardener at Liberty State Park, 250 mums will be planted in colors close to red, white and blue.
“This planting is being done in tribute of all who died on Sept. 11, to give people solace,” said Wakefield.
“This is the first time we have done any planting on Sept. 11…I think everyone should plant something on this day, whether it’s in the park or in their own garden, in honor of those who died.”
For more information, contact Maria Wakefield at (201) 915-3409.
Motorcycle Club
The Hoboken Motorcycle Club, located on Hoboken Avenue near 18th Street in Jersey City near the Hoboken border, is holding a Day of Remembrance on Sept. 11 from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. The day will include a memorial pasta dinner that will coincide with the end of a memorial ride that starts in San Diego on Saturday, Sept. 4 and continues up to Sept. 11 at the Hoboken MC Club.
The memorial ride, known as Torches Across America, was started in 2002 by Gary Covert, a motorcycle enthusiast from Branson, Missouri.
Covert and his wife were visiting Jersey City and New York a few weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. After the tragedy, Covert along with other bikers, decided to organize the ride as tribute to all the victims who lost their lives and the volunteers who gave their time during and after Sept. 11.
For more information, contact the Hoboken MC Club at (201) 656-9514 or e-mail hobokenmc1@aol.com.
Ceremony to unveil bronze plaque
O n Sept. 12 at 2 p.m., a memorial service in honor of all the victims who perished on Sept. 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania will take place at the Katyn Monument located on Montgomery Street and Exchange Place. This year’s ceremony will include the unveiling of a bronze plaque on the Katyn Monument to commemorate the victims of Sept. 11.
The ceremony will also be held in honor of those died in the Katyn Massacre of 1940, where over 20,000 Polish Officers were murdered by the Soviet Secret Police in the Katyn Forest located in the Soviet-occupied section of Poland. For more information, contact Ludwik Wnekowicz at (973) 237-1106.