Maplewood to Remember 9/11

The Township of Maplewood will observe the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the nation's capital with a ceremony at 2 p.m. at the Hilton Branch of Maplewood Memorial Library on September 11, 2011.

Mayor Vic DeLuca announced the plans at the August 2 meeting of the Maplewood Township Committee.

DeLuca noted that obtained by the town has been installed at the library branch. He said that Brickman Landscaping was currently creating a crushed stone path to the monument and planting two rows of flowers.

The 36" x 19" x 13" section of steel from the twin towers was obtained after Megan Kashtan, then a Columbia High School senior, read an article in The New York Times in the fall of 2009 explaining that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey—the owner of the World Trade Center site—was making pieces of the twin towers' steel available to municipalities that had lost residents in the terrorist attack. The steel was to be used as memorials. Kashtan contacted DeLuca who followed up with the Port Authority. Public Works Director Eric Burbank picked up the steel and transported it to Maplewood earlier this year.

The town lost two residents in the events of September 11, 2001: Douglas MacMillan Cherry, 38, and Kirsten L. Christophe, 39. Both worked for Aon Corp. on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Both were parents of young children.

Others in the community were — and continue to be — deeply affected by the events, either through the friends and family, living through the attack themselves while working in Manhattan, or observing the tragedy from the close proximity of Maplewood. Still others have had loved ones serve in the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Memories of that day remain raw — as Maplewoodians were reminded  after was announced in May.

At that time, DeLuca told Patch: "Ten years ago I was also the Mayor and was at our train station until late that night waiting for our residents to return to the safety of their community and home. I will never forget the fear and confusion that etched each person's face as they stepped off the train."

A plaque with a tree planted in their honor serves as a memorial to Cherry and Christophe at the Maplewood Train Station.

DeLuca said that the September 11 ceremony at the Hilton Branch would include an interfaith activity and "very few speeches."