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Building Foundation Honors the Memory
of 166 Industry Members Lost on September 11, 2001
The
New York Building Foundation, the charitable affiliate of the New
York Building Congress, presented crystal workplace memorials to the
26 design and construction organizations that lost employees or members
on September 11, 2001, during a World Trade Center Memorial Breakfast
held at the Regent Wall Street Hotel on November 21.
More than 500 attended the event in memory of the 166 men and women
employed in the building trades, engineering, architecture and other
building disciplines that were lost in the tragic attack on America
and New York City. The largest losses were sustained by 17 unions,
the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and Washington Group
International.
The Building Foundation designed and produced a separate crystal
memorial for each of the companies, agencies and unions involved.
Each memorial was inscribed with the names of the employees/members
who were lost from that organization.The memorials, displayed prior
to the breakfast, were officially presented to each organization
during the morning’s program. Family members, some of whom
were present at the event, are being given printed replicas of the
appropriate memorial as a keepsake.
Richard
T. Anderson, President of the New York Building Foundation and the
New York Building Congress, opened the program by saying, “This
industry has always been known for generosity and civic involvement,
but I have never seen it contribute so much so willingly than in
the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Building
Foundation’s World Trade Center Memorial Fund is truly a labor
of love that is channeling not just money but support for the larger
building community from all sectors throughout the Country and the
world.”
John F. Hennessy III, Chairman of the New York Building Foundation,
introduced each of the organizations that received memorials saying,
“These unions, companies and agencies experienced very personal
losses on September 11 that have changed them forever. In many ways
it has made them, and all of us in the industry, more determined
to do whatever we can to help the City not only recover but grow
in prominence and strength. The losses our colleagues have suffered
are serving to unify our industry and spur us all to greater accomplishments
than we could have imagined prior to the tragedy
of September 11, 2001.”
The
keynote speakers were Joseph J. Seymour, Executive Director of the
Port Authority, and Edward J. Malloy, President of the Building
& Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, an organization
that represents 200,000 skilled workers in the City's building unions.
Said Seymour, “Eighty-four members of the Port Authority
lost their lives in the attack, including my predecessor and friend
Neil Levin.” He noted that many who perished did so in the
line of duty, including six Port Authority police officers who were
helping a woman who could not walk. He also praised his colleagues’
work over the past 15 months, noting “the quiet heroics of
those who were fortunate enough to survive and went right back to
work.”
Malloy
said that the building trades will rebuild Lower Manhattan in honor
of its 63 brothers and sisters who perished on September 11. “Someone
said to me that rebuilding is part of healing. We have to rebuild.
It’s a legacy we leave to the 63 people we lost. Let them
be reassured that we, as an industry, will leave nobody behind.
Nobody will ever be forgotten.”
In the days and months after the World Trade Center attack, the
New York Building Foundation raised more than $350,000 from member
employees, firms, and
other industry colleagues for its World Trade Center Memorial Fund.
A large majority
of the fund was then distributed directly to surviving family members
of building industry workers and uniformed personnel who perished
on September 11, 2001.
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