High School Seeks Donations To Complete 9/11 Memorial Garden

The Borough of Fort Lee on Sept. 11, 2011. A roughly 12-foot steel girder from the South Tower of the World Trade Center forms the centerpiece of the monument, which now stands in .

In conjunction with building the larger monument, the borough also built smaller ones, dedicating them to Fort Lee’s emergency service agencies, out of another girder the Port Authority donated and cut into nine two-foot by two-foot pieces.

At the behest of ’s coordinator of school and community services Barbara Pastore, the borough gave the school one of those nine pieces to form the centerpiece of its own 9/11 Memorial Garden to be completely in June, if everything goes as planned, and dedicated on Sept. 11, 2012.

“We got piece number nine,” Pastore laughed.

The high school got started on the memorial garden on Saturday, taking unsightly trees down and starting the landscaping process.

“It’s been in our courtyard since September of this year,” Pastore said of the piece of steel. “It had been sitting there since, but after [some pushing], we finally got permission to rebuild this courtyard around this monument.”

Pastore said she’s been working on the project for two years—“ever since I asked the mayor for the beam.”

“I hope that the entire courtyard will be complete by June, but I think there’s going to be the unveiling of the monument on 9/11 of this year,” she said. “If we have the money to pay for the monument ahead of time, it’ll come in and it’ll be covered. And then it’ll be unveiled on 9/11.”

The only problem is getting that money.

Pastore estimates that the school needs at least $20,000 for landscaping, the building of the actual monument and everything else that goes into transforming the previously overgrown courtyard. She said so far, she’s managed to raise about $12,000, of which $9,360 is going toward the final cost. That puts the school a little more than $10,000 short of its goal, with all of the money being raised by students at the high school through various club fundraising activities, but mostly from the sale of bricks that will form a walkway from both of the courtyard’s corner doors to the monument and benches at the center of the garden.

Each individual brick costs $100, and you can have your brick engraved with three lines “of any sentiment that will live in perpetuity,” school officials say.

“Alumni names, memorial acknowledgements or graduation recognition are examples that will make this garden meaningful for many,” high school officials said in a letter to potential donors.

“It’s costing us a fortune,” Pastore said. “I need all the help I can get.”

She said that for each brick she sells for $100, the school is only getting $40 toward the cost of the courtyard because $60 goes toward the cost of engraving the brick.

“So it’s a really long process,” Pastore said.

But some companies have stepped up, donating as much as $500 for a brick, for example, of which $440 would go toward the $20,000 goal, Pastore said.

The high school’s 9/11 Memorial Garden and courtyard will feature the piece of steel beam either standing straight up or leaning to one side—that’s the only part of the design that has yet to be finalized—in the center of the courtyard. A special commemorative plaque that describes the beam’s significance and its relationship to the other eight and a Fort Lee High School 2012 plaque with an eagle will bracket the small beam.

Once the monument and courtyard are done, its use will be a “senior privilege,” Pastore said.

“And it’s in the middle of all the classes so everyone will see it,” she said. “And then teachers will be allowed to have classes out there. We want to really kick it up to really looking nice.”

But with trees, bushes, landscaping, fixing existing drainage issues, building the paved walkway with seating, and of course, constructing the monument itself, Pastore said, “The costs all adds up.”

“We’re focusing on past teachers and graduates because I would think they would want something in there,” she said. “It’ll be there in perpetuity.”

If you are interested in purchasing a brick and thereby contributing to the cause, you can fill out the form attached PDF to the right of this article and return it by April 1 with a check payable to “Fort Lee High School” to:

• Fort Lee High School
• 3000 Lemoine Ave.
• Fort Lee, NJ 07024
• Attention: 9/11 Memorial Fund

“We’re really excited,” Pastore said. “I’m excited because this has been my pet project.”