9/11 Tribute Edition
Fire News, September 2011, Page 101
Stories Unfold at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center
After the country and the world was brought to its knees on the most atrocious of days, firefighter family members banded together to support one another by creating the September 11th Families Association. The association's primary mission was to share information regarding support services, recovery operations at the WTC site, the medical examiner, and memorials. Lee Ielpi, retired FDNY firefighter who lost his son FDNY firefighter Jonathan Ielpi, was an early leader in the association. He participated in the WTC recovery operations every day and became involved in the development of the memorial at the WTC. Using the FDNY Global Positioning Map which tracked the recovery of remains, Lee along with other family members were able to advocate for the 9/11 memorial to encompass the entire footprint of the WTC towers where most of the 19,981 human remains were recovered. "Being the most valuable real estate in Manhattan, it was a difficult process to advocate for a memorial that would encompass eight acres of New York City," said Ielpi. After years of meetings, working with government officials and designers, in 2004 the design and placement of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum were agreed to encompass the tower footprints. Having been involved in the WTC development process, the association recognized that it would be years before there would be anything for visitors to view to help them understand the events of 9/11. Ielpi and Executive Director Jennifer Adams, decided to create the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, a museum dedicated to
the community and personal histories of 9/11. The museum opened in September 2006 and has had over 2.4 million visitors to date. The Tribute WTC Center includes artifacts from 9/11 including a window from one of the planes, a steel column sheered in half, a crumpled Scott pack and FDNY dispatch tapes from the 78th floor of the South Tower where Chief Orio Palmer reached several victims who were trapped. The center is located across the street from the World Trade Center site and next to FDNY Engine10/Ladder10, and is a small museum that provides educational programming for visitors and a central place for the 9/11 community to gather and share their personal histories. In 2004, Ielpi gave a tour of the WTC site to a group of students from Philipsburg, Kansas. As he explained the events of 9/11, Jennifer Adams noticed that the students were engaged in listening to his personal story. It was from this tour that the idea of the center’s person-toperson tours began. These truly unique tours began in August 2005. Through walking tours, exhibitions, and programs, the Tribute Center offers "Person to Person History," connecting visitors with people who directly experienced the events of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001 -- as family members who lost loved ones, survivors, Lower Manhattan residents and workers, rescue workers, civilian volunteers, police and firefighters. FDNY Commissioner Salvatore Cassano said, "If there is one group of people who understands the terrible magnitude of what the fire department lost on that day, it's the Tribute Center. A lot of people use the phrase 'Never
Forget.' Well, for the Tribute Center, those aren't just words. It's the reason they exist. It's such an important job, to teach future generations about what happened that day." The Tribute WTC Visitor Center The Tribute WTC Visitor Center is frequented by local, national, and international visitors who make a pilgrimage to the World Trade Center site, eager to learn and connect with history. To date, over 2.4 million visitors have been personally welcomed and introduced to an extremely unique collection of stories that reveal the diverse, personal perspectives of the Tribute WTC Visitor Center's guided tours, audio tours (offered in six different languages) and five educational galleries. The tribute center offers deeper educational experiences in the form of a guided gallery experience for students, grade 5 to 12. Annually, tribute serves over 12,000 students. The center also has created a free, online multimedia toolkit for teachers who would like primary source material to bring a deeper understanding of 9/11 into the classroom. The toolkit, “September 11th: Personal Stories of Transformation,” engages students in using personal stories, interacting with participants in the September 11 events and conducting their own research to create their own projects that explore civic engagement. Each unit is a story of individuals who were directly impacted by 9/11 and who responded by creating projects to better their communities. The materials are available at www.tributewtc.org/ programs/toolkit.html.
