A Visit To Manhattan Cements

A Newtown Link To The 9/11 Memorial

The Briscoe family of Newtown visited The National September 11 Memorial on Saturday, September 17. 

It was an important visit not only because the family was one of the first to see the memorial since its opening to the public on September 12 (families of victims were the first to visit the memorial, on September 11), but it was also the opportunity for a young man who single-handedly raised funds, one penny at a time, to locate two cobblestones and one paver he had inscribed on behalf of his hometown.

Residents were first introduced to Patrick Briscoe and his Forget Me Not Pennies 9/11 Memorial Fund when he spoke with The Bee in February. The then-seventh grade student at St Rose School had taken it upon himself to make sure at least one cobblestone at the national memorial and museum in lower Manhattan honored his hometown. Great support from residents, including a few unexpectedly large donations, allowed Patrick to quickly reach his goal of collecting $100 worth of pennies for a cobblestone to represent his hometown at the memorial.

With a handful of cans placed around town for donations of pennies, Patrick’s fund quickly grew to more than $1,200 by June. With that money he was able to donate enough funds for a granite paver and two cobblestones to be placed at the 9/11 Memorial on behalf of Newtown.

“May the 9/11 victims always be remembered by the citizens of Newtown. When the memorial opens this September, Newtown citizens will be able to locate the paver and cobblestones they have sponsored through a kiosk located on the Memorial Plaza,” Patrick wrote in part in June, in a letter to The Bee.

“Your generosity is an example of the goodness of Newtown. I am very grateful to live in such a wonderful town,” he wrote.

Last month, one week after the memorial opened to the public, Patrick and his family visited the site.

“We reserved our tickets back in July on the first day they were available,” said Liz Briscoe, Patrick’s mother. “It is a beautiful place to see! I can’t believe the calmness and peacefulness you feel along with the sadness that brings you to such a memorial. I recommend every American to visit this memorial.”

The memorial remembers and honors the 2,983 people who were killed in the attacks of 9/11 and the World Trade Center attacks of February 26, 1993. The design, created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, consists of two reflecting pools set in the footprints of the original Twin Towers, around which the names of the victims are inscribed in bronze. The pools are surrounded by a plaza of trees.

The Briscoes were able to look up the locations of the cobblestones and granite paver donated through The Forget Me Not Pennies 9/11 Memorial Fund.

“Newtown has a cobblestone located near the North Memorial Pool,” said Mrs Briscoe, “a cobblestone located at the South Memorial Pool, and a granite paver located in a tree row near the Survivor Tree.” (The Survivor Tree is a callery pear tree that sustained extensive damage on, but lived through, 9/11. The tree, with lifeless limbs, snapped roots and blackened trunk, was discovered in October 2001 and freed from the piles of smoldering rubble in the plaza of the World Trade Center. It was replanted at the site of the memorial in December 2010.)

All visitors to the memorial can locate any dedicated stone through a number of kiosks at the site. The memorial’s website also allows people to find stones (or the names that have been inscribed on the memorial waterfall) before a visit. Cobblestones and pavers at the site do not have engravings. The only names at the memorial are those of the deceased along the edge of the waterfall, but the names of donors and the location of their stones are noted at the kiosks.

The memorial and museum are located on eight of the 16 acres of the World Trade Center site. The memorial was dedicated on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Admission to the monument is free, but due to ongoing construction on other World Trade Center projects, the museum has instituted a system of timed passes for those who want to visit. The timed reservation system was launched in July, and more than 400,000 passes have been reserved by residents of all 50 states and more than 70 countries.

The museum, which will display artifacts linked to the event of 9/11, is slated to open in September 2012.

To reserve a pass to visit the 9/11 Memorial, visit www.911memorial.org. Admission is free, but donations are still welcome.

Visit this week’s Newtown Bee Facebook photo album to see more photos taken by Liz Briscoe when she and her family visited The National September 11 Memorial.