LIMA — The largest loss of life on American soil in a single day came on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and brought down a jetliner that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
A total of 2,986 people lost their lives that fateful day. But as the years roll past, the enormity of the events of 9/11 — a day that changed the lives of Americans forever — already have started to recede into distant memory. A group of Allen County residents have taken it upon themselves to make sure that future generations will have a permanent reminder of the sacrifices made that day and of this country’s resilience.
Monday marked the public unveiling of the Allen County 9/11 Memorial Foundation, a newly formed non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose stated goal is the erection of a 9/11 memorial on land adjacent to the Shawnee Township Fire Department on Fort Amanda Road.
Members of the fledgling foundation’s exploratory committee include Jeffrey Rosebrock, who is employed at the Air National Guard base in Toledo; Dave Belton, Shawnee Township trustee; Todd Truesdale, chief of the Shawnee Fire Department; Pat Beam, landscape architect with Beam Designs; Ken Ford, Lorraine Ignarski, Dan Ross and Dan Bucher.
Committee members pitched their proposal Monday during a noon meeting of the Lima Exchange Club.
“This will be a phenomenal memorial,” Rosebrock told club members. “Everybody in this room remembers 9/11, but our children and grandchildren don’t.” He said the memorial is vital to teaching future generations about their past.
“I envision this as creating an educational opportunity, and not just for school children,” Rosebrock said, noting that the location of the proposed memorial — along the banks of the Ottawa River and easily accessible from the river walk — will make it a natural point of interest.
“I really believe this will be something large for the county,” Rosebrock added.
Truesdale added, “Everybody’s life changed forever on 9/11. We need to never forget the ones we lost that day.”
Artifacts to be incorporated into the memorial’s design include a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, a piece of limestone from a damaged section of the Pentagon, and a large stone gathered from a field in Pennsylvania where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Fundraising efforts will begin immediately, with a goal of raising the $400,000 necessary for the memorial in short order, committee members said. The group’s goal is to dedicate the memorial in September of 2019.
Ford said appeals would be to the private sector as well as to “national corporate organizations,” which could possibly provide funding and/or in-kind donations of materials or labor.
“We’re all excited about this, and everyone we’ve shown has been excited about this,” Ford said. “Our purpose today is to make you aware of what’s going on. Fundraising starts tomorrow.”
Residents may visit the website allencounty911memorial.org for more information about how to contribute, participate and support the project. A Facebook site will be online shortly, organizers said.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
