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Overcast Legion creating 9/11 memorial
The memorial, containing a steel beam from the World Trade Center, will be located in Veteran's Memorial Park in North Merrick
Veterans Memorial Park in North Merrick sits on a grassy plot between Merrick Avenue and Little Whaleneck Drive, just north of Camp Avenue Elementary School. Built in 1999, the park features monuments honoring volunteer firefighters and Merrick residents who died in World War II and the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq wars.
A stone tablet pays homage to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Soon, a steel beam from the World Trade Center will serve as a centerpiece of the 9/11 monument.
Walter Ellensohn, the park chairman, and Tom Riordan, a past commander of Merrick American Legion Post 1282, were instrumental in obtaining the beam from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees all 9/11 artifacts. Legion member Harry Crosby and Henry Hinricks, an ex-chief of the North Merrick Fire Department, also took part in the effort to obtain the steel.
The beam, which is 30 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds, will be dedicated during an American Legion ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks. “It’s a memory,” said Ellensohn, who is also a former chief of the North Merrick F.D. and a past commissioner. “People shouldn’t forget.”
This Sept. 11, Ellensohn said, guest speakers at the park will include legion members, volunteer firefighters and elected leaders. He said that the steel beam would be used as a pedestal for the 9/11 monument, and that a brass plate would be added to it. Since 2003, the stone has been the lone monument in the park dedicated to 9/11 victims. Merokean Dan Pfeifer created the monument when he was 17 and a Boy Scout, as his Eagle Scout project.
With Riordan’s help, Pfeifer created the monument because, he recalled, “At the time there was nothing in Merrick, and I felt like it was time for there to be a monument” commemorating Sept. 11.
He obtained the stone from Presti Stone & Mason Corp. in Freeport, which donated it, and he received a donation from the Merrick Knights of Columbus for the plaque.
The American Legion took over maintenance of the stone, and Pfeifer said that he often walks by the monument, and sees the flowers that are occasionally placed on it. “I wanted to do something that would be really good for Merrick, and have kind of a lasting impression,” he said.
