Cherry Hill raising funds for its September 11th memorial

Following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, four Cherry Hill fighters went to New York City to help with relief efforts after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Now, a piece of the center will be included in Cherry Hill’s 9/11 memorial.

“It’s a place to reflect where people can remember,” Dan Keashen, chief of staff for Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt, told NewsWorks. “We’re going to be hopefully cutting the ribbon on a memorial using a piece of the north tower.”

When the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey was looking to disperse parts of the Twin Towers, Cherry Hill Assistant  Fire Chief Thomas Kolbe said, the fire department put in an application. Last May, after being granted a piece of the I-beam, the department went to pick the steel up.

Now the township and fire department are looking to raise funds to help erect the memorial. Renderings depict two granite replicas of the towers, bridged in the middle by the piece of north tower steel, which will “forever symbolize the strength of the United States of America, and will serve as a fitting centerpiece of this memorial to honor those whose lives were lost that September day.”

Keashen says the total estimate for the memorial is $60,000, which the public can donate to by mail, or through the fire department’s website.

Ten years after the Cherry Hill firefighters returned home, Kolbe says, “we’re going to have it done for 9/11.”