Central District erecting memorial with girder from the WTC

A cold drizzle fell as the short, yellow school bus from the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District pulled up last Wednesday to Kennedy Airport's Hagar 17, the 80,000-square-foot storehouse for the remains of what once were the two tallest buildings in the world.

Out came Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Kiernan, special education teacher John Boyle, retired art teacher Dan Christoffel, Facilities Director John Scalisi and two students, Julie Schnaars, 17, and Patrick Lugauer, 16.

They came to inspect a twisted, rusted 1,600-pound girder that once helped to hold up the World Trade Center. The girder will form the centerpiece of a 9/11 memorial, to be built in the middle of the plaza at the Brookside School in North Merrick.

What they found inside Hangar 17, all said, astounded them: a collection of 9/11 artifacts like no other, kept in dim lighting and climate-controlled air by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in a former Pan Am maintenance hangar since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center nearly nine years ago. Now the authority is working feverishly to give away everything to museums, non-profit groups, fire and police departments, and school districts to create exhibits and monuments to keep the memory of Sept. 11, 2001, alive.

Boyle credited Schnaars with writing letters and making weekly phone calls to the Port Authority for nearly a year to obtain the girder. It was all part of an independent study project that she has been working on with Boyle. Such projects teach students "about the power of an idea," Boyle said. "From nothing, we're here today. All you need is the idea, and everything else will come."

Schnaars said she hopes the memorial will help comfort local victims’ families, noting that 26 Bellmore-Merrick residents died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "We just hope that the families will come and visit and touch the piece,” she said. “I hope they'll see the piece and feel closure."

Lugauer, a junior who recently joined the memorial effort, said the monument "is going to show respect for everyone who lost their lives that day, and for the families in the community who lost their loved ones."