Many things will come together leading up to this year’s commemoration of the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
On Sept. 7 at 11 a.m., about 20 motorcyclists from The Knights of Fire will pick up a newly acquired piece of steel that was once part of the World Trade Center. They will escort it from its current storage in City Hall to Harbor View Park, where it will become one of the monuments in remembrance of those who perished in the 2001 attacks as well as the 1993 attacks.
Frank Perrucci, chairman of the Bayonne Remembers September 11 Committee, said the four-foot piece of steel will be located to the east of the world famous 100-foot-high monument called “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism,” in the lawn area nearby.
“The steel from the World Trade Center will be placed on a flat bed which will be decorated and then it will be escorted to the park.” – Frank Perrucci
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“The steel from the World Trade Center will be placed on a flat bed which will be decorated and then it will be escorted to the park,” he said.
He said the artists from Pompilio & Sons of Jersey City – who designed the 13-pillar monument for Bayonne – selected the piece of steel they needed to make the new monument.
National convention will visit Bayonne memorial
On Sept. 8, International Fire Buff Associates will stop at the Harbor Park as part of their 59th annual convention taking place in Newark this year.
Local groups involved include The Bayonne Fire Canteen, The Bell and Siren Club, Box 54 Club, The Gong Club, and the South Jersey Fire Photographers.
This will be the fourth IFBA convention hosted in New Jersey. The first was in 1956 and was held in Newark; the second was in 1964 and was held in Jersey City; the third was in 1989 and was held in Secaucus; and now once again in 2011.
The convention members will visit the Bayonne monument park at 9 a.m. then return to Newark.
Bayonne Fire Chief Greg Rogers said the group will pay tribute to those fallen on 9/11.
Holy Family holds school prayer ceremony
On Sept. 9, Holy Family Academy will hold its annual ceremony for staff and students in the courtyard of the school.
This is an annual tradition that varies from year to year, but school officials say it is a particularly moving ceremony that helps commemorate the loss.
Brotherhood riders will come to Bayonne
On Sept 10, a group of bicycle riders including 42 emergency workers will arrive at the monument between noon and 12:30 p.m. to pay tribute to the fallen.
The Brotherhood Riders will be escorted from the Bayonne city border to the site by local police and fire vehicles, and greeted at the monument area by additional emergency services personnel.
Originally scheduled to go to Liberty State Park, the ceremony was relocated to Bayonne when Gov. Christopher Christie took over the park for a state commemoration.
This is part of what is called the Brotherhood Ride, started by a group of firefighters from North Naples Florida in 2007. The ride includes firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency medical personnel who are riding up from Florida on bicycles and will arrive at the monument a day before the ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary.
City ceremony will kick off early this year
On Sept. 11, Bayonne will hold its annual Interfaith Memorial Service and Candlelight vigil at Harbor View Park.
The service will mark the 10th anniversary remembrance of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fatal crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. The service will also honor the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993.
This year’s event will take place on Sunday, Sept. 11 at the 9-11 Harbor View Memorial Park, Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, and will begin at 6:30 p.m. with the dedication of the Twin Towers Steel Monument followed by the Interfaith Memorial Service and Candlelight Vigil.
Fr. Gregory G. Perez of Trinity Parish in Bayonne is coordinating the Interfaith Memorial Service and Candlelight Vigil.
The program will include a bagpiper, color guards from the Bayonne Police and Fire Departments, the Veterans’ Color Guards from the Bayonne Memorial Day Parade Committee, and the Bayonne High School Marching Band. Several members of the Bayonne Interfaith Clergy will offer prayers, readings and reflections, and there will be music and patriotic songs. The program will also include students from all of the Bayonne schools. Mayor Mark Smith will present remarks. Taps will be played at the end of the program.
Members of the public who wish to attend the Sept. 11th program can take shuttle buses that will pick up passengers at West 23rd Street and Del Monte Drive (the location of the Catholic War Veterans Post No. 1612) beginning at 5:30 p.m. At the conclusion of the program, the shuttle buses will transport passengers back to 23rd Street.
Participants who wish to drive directly to the ceremony can park in designated areas at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor. There are also a limited number of parking spaces located next to 9-11 Harbor View Memorial Park.
Paving stones for memorial area still available
The September 11th Bayonne Remembers Committee is still offering paving stones for placement at the park. Many visitors have found that the 9-11 Harbor View Memorial Park is a beautiful, peaceful space in Bayonne’s landscape.
Jerry and Dolores Kelly are coordinating the paving stone sales. Jerry Kelly stated that each Brussels Block rectangular paving stone measures 8 by 7 inches, with limestone coloring and black lettering. The paving stone is coated with a water resilient layer, and each paving stone costs $50. Anyone interested in purchasing a paving stone can call Jerry Kelly at (201) 823-4890 or write to the September 11th Bayonne Remembers Committee at P.O. Box 1201, Bayonne, NJ 07002.
The entire community is invited to participate in the dedication of the Twin Towers Steel Monument and the Interfaith Memorial Service and Candlelight Vigil, which will take place rain or shine. Any questions about this event can be directed to the Committee at (201) 858-1623.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.
Bayonne residents who were victims of terrorists’ attacks
On Sept. 11, 2001, 2,973 people died as the result of an attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, the attack on the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and an aborted hijacking of a jet airliner in the skies over Pennsylvania. As a result of these tragic events, Bayonne lost 12 people on that day. These included:
• Alysia Basmajian, 23, worked as an accountant for Cantor Fitzgerald. She worked on the 101st floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center, the second to collapse in the terrorist attacks. She, her husband Anthony, and their child Kaela Grayce, moved to Bayonne in May 2000. Alysia and Anthony met, fell in love, and married while at the College of William and Mary.
• Ana M. Centeno, 38, was accountant with Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. on the 101st floor of the World Trade Center. Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, she was known to frequent the local gym or jog the track in Stephen Gregg County Park. Born in Puerto Rico, she moved to Jersey City while still in elementary school. She later moved to Bayonne.
• John A. Cooper, 40, grew up in Brooklyn where he excelled in sports. He sold computer software as an account manager for SunGard Trading Systems in Jersey City, and was visiting someone in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack. Friends have described him as nice, but with a significant sense of humor.
• Colleen Ann Deloughery, 41, worked as a reinsurance specialist for Aon Corp. on the 99th Floor of the World Trade Center. Born in Jersey City, she lived most of her life in Bayonne where she and her future husband first met as a teenagers, and she married in 1990. She apparently loved spending time in her tiny back yard with her husband, Jay, and two children Amanda and Michael – along with brothers, sisters and a host of other family members.
• Ramzi A. Doany, 35, worked as a forensic accountant for March for Marsh & McLennan, the insurance brokerage company. Doany was born to Palestinian parents in Amman, Jordan, and lived for many years in Milwaukee where he attended the University of Wisconsin. He reportedly loved working in New York City, reading Charles Dickens novels, and Thanksgiving turkey. Just prior to the Sept. 11 attack, he had purchased a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
• John Roger Fisher, 46, worked as a security consultant to the Port Authority of New York. He helped operate the security system installed after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. When the jetliner struck the North Tower on Sept. 11, he rushed back to New York from a meeting in New Jersey to check on security and help with evacuations.
• Orasri Liangthanasarn, 26, worked as a banquet coordinator for Windows on the World restaurant, located on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center, a job she started the month before the attack, after having graduated New York University’s master’s program in food and nutrition management. She and her sister came to the United States from Thailand in 1998. After living a year in central Illinois, they moved to Bayonne.
• Gavin McMahon, 35, was an insurance executive for Aon Corp. on the 105th floor of the South Tower of World Trade Center. A world traveler who originated in England, he moved to the New York area in 1996. He had fallen in love with New York after a prior visit a decade earlier. He and his girlfriend moved to Bayonne a few years later where he was still renovating a house at the time of the attack. He was particularly fond of Formula One racing and an Irish punk rock band known at Stiff Little Fingers.
• Steven P. Morello, 52, worked as a facilities manager for Marsh & McLennan, where he worked for seven years on the 93rd floor of the North Tower. Less than two weeks prior to the attack, he and his wife Eileen had celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. They raised three children, Steven Jr. Alfia and Jessica.
• Kenneth Joseph Tarantino, 39, worked as a currency trader at Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He worked as a substitute teacher while going to college, and met his wife while attending college. He eventually got his bachelor’s degree in marketing. He was fond of golf, the Yankees, and going to a beach house every summer on the Jersey Shore. He and his family had just moved to a bigger house in Bayonne the February prior to the attack with their 3-year-old son, Kenneth.
• Patricia Cushing, 69, a retired service representative for New Jersey Bell was traveling to San Francisco on vacation with sister-in-law Jane Folger, a retired bank officer, 73, when their plane was hijacked. This was her first flight on a commercial airplane, United Flight 93, which passengers forced down in Pennsylvania to avoid having the hijackers use it as a weapon. Cushing loved music, and became a season ticket holder at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City after her husband died in 1988. She accompanied her sister-in-law, Jane Folger, to every type of cultural event. Folger loved New York City and could not get enough of the stores, theater, Greenwich Village or the World Trade Center complex where she loved to shop. The two women lived within a few blocks of each other. They shared the same tastes in conservative classic clothing and enjoyed cashing in together on the benefits of senior citizenship.