9/11 to be remembered throughout the region on Friday

September 9, 2009

9/11 to be remembered throughout the region on Friday
By Debbie Swartz   dswartz@gannett.com


Moments of silence, candlelight vigils, community service: People from around Greater Binghamton will have a variety of ways to observe the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Broome County will hold a remembrance ceremony at 8:46 a.m. Friday -- the minute in which the first of two planes hit the World Trade Center -- at the downtown Governmental Plaza. The event will include a moment of silence, a 21-gun salute and a flag-raising and lowering ceremony.

 At Binghamton University, the alma mater of 15 who were killed when the World Trade Center collapsed, the campus community will observe the anniversary through a variety of activities beginning at 8:46 a.m., including placement of flowers at the monument that commemorates the lost lives of former students.
The Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life will hold its annual Mitzvah Marathon, which is designed to allow students to perform good deeds, such as donating food to Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse, within the community.

The U.S. Postal Service has moved its annual Letter Carriers' Harvest Food Drive to Sept. 11. Residents are asked to leave food items at, of next to, mailboxes on Friday. Letter carriers will deliver the donations to community food banks and pantries that serve the area where the donations are collected.
BU also will be teaming up with the United Way of Broome County to participate in A Day of Caring activities, in which faculty, staff, students and alumni will volunteer their time to work on numerous projects throughout the community.

In Owego, the Gateway Garden Project is looking for citizens to participate in service and remembrance by giving time and energy to a community service project from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Front Street. Organized through the Charles H. Bassett Youth Foundation Inc., the project is meant to inspire the call to action and sacrifice Americans felt on 9/11.

"The tragic events of September 11, 2001 inspired Americans to come together in a remarkable spirit of unity and compassion. It was a stark reminder that our fate as individuals is inherently tied to the fate or our nation," the agency said.

Additional Facts


Future memorial


In 2002, The City of Binghamton took possession of a 3-foot piece of steel salvaged from the North Tower of the World Trade Center to turn into a Sept. 11 memorial. While the hope was that it would become part of a memorial by 2006, the project has been put on hold, due to lack of funding.
The original $300,000 design called for the memorial to be built outside city hall on State Street. Promised donations of labor and materials from local businesses and unions left about $100,000 needed in donations. To date, the 9/11 Committee of the Southern Tier has raised $17,000.
A less costly memorial is now likely.




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