By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
A number of observances today, Friday, will commemorate the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that reverberated locally and throughout the world.
Services in West Windsor and Plainsboro and a blood drive in Montgomery will help residents deal with the aftermath of the 2001 tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Mercer County Community College will host a memorial at 11 a.m. at the West Windsor Campus on Old Trenton Road.
In the Memorial Garden adjacent to the student center, former firefighter and current Mercer County Fire Academy Instructor John Kennedy Jr. will speak about his experience at the disaster. Specifically, he will talk about the friends he met through the New Jersey Fire College, friends he lost as a result of the attacks.
Mr. Kennedy responded to New York City with firefighters from Burlington County on Sept. 11, 2001.
”It’s going to be a very, very short talk,” he said. “I’m going to go back prior to 9/11 and let them know my relations with these people, and how things occurred.”
Mr. Kennedy has not shied away from tragedy even since that traumatic day. In 2004, he spent over two weeks dealing with the disaster and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Asked if one can ever adjust to such types of events, he replied, “It’s just as bad each time.”
Scott Loh is the director of the fire academy, which is home to five 9/11 veterans that he knows of. This will be the third year in which one of them has spoken at his request. Though memorials have been held every year since 2001, he said the first responders started speaking two years ago after he mentioned to other college administrators they had such veterans at the academy.
”I think it’s definitely something that people need to remember,” he said. “And not to dwell on those events, but to be mindful of what occurred that day, what it meant and how it impacted both individuals and us as a community and a country.”
The college will host the event in conjunction with Mercer County. Other speakers will include County Executive Brian M. Hughes, college board Chairman the Rev. William Coleman Jr., and college President Patricia C. Donohue. The invocation will be given by the Rev. Robert Wittik, and student Danielle Allison will sing.
In case of rain, the events will be held in the Student Center.
West Windsor lost seven residents in the attacks, and the township will also commemorate the anniversary. Tonight, a 10-foot-long, 8-ton steel beam from the former site of the World Trade Center in New York City will come to the Twin Pond 9/11 memorial in West Windsor Township at 7 p.m. The memorial garden is located behind the tennis courts at Route 571 and Clarksville Road.
The fragment of the site was obtained from the Jersey City Fire Department, where Councilman George Borek is a member, and the beam and several photos of the attack will be unveiled at the ceremony. West Windsor resident and photographer Danny Sze took the photos as part of his collection “Image of Courage,” which has toured the U.S. and appeared in China and was published in a book to raise money for the victims of the attacks.
Township officials are considering the possibility of raising money to erect the 8-ton beam on a foundation in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 next year, but for now the beam is lying on its side.
”These additions to our memorial site will not just be about the horror of 9/11 and the heartbreak of what happened on that day, but also a remembrance of how the nation and the world came together to support one another. The donations themselves are also a testament of that spirit and I hope they will serve as an inspiration to others,” said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh.
West Windsor now owns the collection and will put different photos at the memorial service each year.
Business Administrator Robert Hary said the township has added elements each year to keep the garden growing. The observances have been held every year since 9/11.
[gwe: new: ]Plainsboro will hold its own memorial tomorrow, Saturday, at 10 a.m. at the 9/11 memorial grounds by the Municipal Building. “We do a memorial and lay a wreath every year on 9/11 for the victims of 9/11,” said Mayor Peter Cantu. He said Plainsboro police coordinate the event and will be in attendance.
Meanwhile, in Montgomery, the township will hold its annual 9/11 memorial blood drive. It will take place today from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Otto Kaufman Community Center, 356 Skillman Road in the Skillman section of the township. Appointments are available by calling the township health department at (908) 359-8211 extension 245 or e-mailing [email protected], though walk-ins are welcome. Every donor is asked to bring a photo or signature I.D. and to eat within four hours of donating, and each one will receive a T-shirt.
This blood drive is to honor the lives lost in or altered by 9/11 as well as to acknowledge local first responders, namely fire, police and emergency medical volunteers.
The Township Committee, Montgomery Township High School and Township Health Department are conducting the drive in cooperation with the Community Blood Council of New Jersey in Ewing.
[email protected]

