Grand Ledge resident Theresa Schlosser writes a message on a steel beam that will be used in the construction of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Wednesday afternoon in Lansing. This beam is a part of an exhibit that is touring the country and will ultimately be part of the memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York.
Lansing — The National September 11 Memorial & Museum Tribute Exhibition visited Michigan’s Capitol Building on Wednesday as part of a 25-city nationwide tour.
The tour honors the 2,980 victims and heroes of the attacks that hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 and Feb. 26, 1993. A part of a grassroots awareness, the tour is a fundraising effort to involve Americans in contributing to the memorial and museum.
“You have to have something there for them to understand what truly happened that day,” said Lee Ielpi, a member of the memorial board who spoke at the opening ceremonies. Ielpi’s son, Jonathan, was a firefighter in FDNY Squad 288 who died rescuing people on Sept. 11, 2001.
The tour includes a small part of the permanent memorial, with photos of the atmosphere surrounding the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks. The exhibit also includes a short film with accounts from the survivors and witnesses of what happened on the days and weeks following Sept. 11, 2001.
“The exhibit brings back a flood of emotions,” Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero said. “It’s really moving.”
A permanent home for the memorial and museum is already in construction at the former site of the towers in New York City. The memorial and museum will span eight acres and delve seven stories beneath the plaza above. The memorial plaza will be comprised of two waterfall pools that fall 30 feet into the museum and will flow constantly.
The names of all the people who died in the towers, the Pentagon and in the hijacked airplanes will scroll along the memorial pools.
It will be the focal point of a park located at the base of the Freedom Tower, a monument and office building, which also is being built at the site of the former World Trade Center.
The museum will contain artifacts collected during the site cleanup, said Cliff Chanin, senior program adviser for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
“Some of the most powerful artifacts will be the impact steel, literally the beam of the tower where the plane hit,” Chanin said.
They also plan to have a few of the crushed fire trucks as well as personal artifacts that victims left behind, he said.
“Its unbelievable,” Lansing Fire Chief Tom Cochran said.
“It’s truly a memorial that will honor the innocent people who lost their lives that day and also the firefighters, the police officers, the port authority officers that sacrificed their lives. Who knows how many thousands of lives were saved that day by their sacrifice?”
Individuals had a chance to be a part of the memorial by signing a steel beam that will be used in the construction of the memorial.
“To think that you have the chance to be part of history is pretty amazing,” Cochran said.
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