Jacobi Medical Center and the Bronx community remembered the September 11th terrorist attacks on their 14th anniversary at a 9/11-memorial garden on its campus.
The annual ceremony, a procession leading to the circular permanent memorial on the Pelham Parkway campus, took place on Friday, September 11.
The remembrance included wreaths and flowers placed on two granite monuments that lists the names of all the borough’s 143 victims from the Twin Towers attack.
The Joint Community Advisory Boards of Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital coordinated the event.
Jacobi CAB board chairman, Silvio Mazzella, indicated that that the memorial grove is a place to remember those that perished that day.
“When you look at this place, it is the place to be to help ease the pain that can never go away,” said Mazzella of the memorial garden. “This has got to be carried on…this has got to be a part of our history.”
The memorial garden was created with support from former Senator Guy Velella, and is situated in a quiet location, free from much of the noise and the hustle-bustle of daily life where those who want to reflect are surrounded by the rustle of the wind and birds singing, said a CAB member.
The program for the ceremony included the SUNY Maritime Color Guard, and the singing of the National Anthem and Amazing Grace.
September 11-themed poems ‘Meet Me in the Stairwell’ and ‘One’ were read by CAB members.
There was an invocation from Esme Sattaur-Low, chairwoman of the NCBH CAB.
Christopher Fugazy, chief operating officer, of Jacobi Medical Center and Gregory Calliste, chief operating officer, NCBH placed wreaths on the two granite markers that mirror the Twin Towers.
Representatives from elected officials including Congressman Joseph Crowley, Congressman Eliot Engel, Senator Jeff Klein, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., Councilman Andy King, and Councilman James Vacca attended, as did Kenneth Kearns, Community Board 10 district manager and Jeremy Warneke, Community Board 11 district manger.
As a throng of people made their way up the winding path in a procession to the grove, Gabriele Pacino, a civilian first responder who helped at Ground Zero and later became a U.S. Citizen, remembered.
He later came down with illnesses related to the disaster site.
Attendee Tommy Messina, who said he worked on all of the original World Trade Center buildings as an electrician, recalled looking up and thinking how strong they looked and that they should be “the eighth and ninth wonders of the world.”
The event was one of several marking the 9/11 attacks around the borough.
On Thursday, September 10, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and the Bronx State Courts held a memorial outside of 851 Grand Concourse, a courthouse and building that houses the borough president’s office.
On September 11, a sunset memorial was held at a 9/11 monument in Throggs Neck, at the Cross Bronx Expressway service road and East Tremont Avenue.
