Crime & Safety

St. Margaret's Rededicates 9/11 Memorial Saturday

The restored 9/11 Memorial will be dedicated as part of a Blue Mass marking the 10th anniversary of Sept.11, 2001 Saturday morning.

St. Margaret Church's 9/11 ceremony evolved over the 10 years since the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center.

Prayers for the military were added along the way, then more recently the Pearl River church went to a Blue Mass, a reference to the color of the uniforms of police officers and firefighters as well as the priest's vestments. Civil servants and members of the military are asked to wear their dress uniforms to the ceremony.

This year the Blue Mass, scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, will be followed at 10:45 a.m. by the dedication of the new 9/11 Memorial, which has replaced the old one by the entrance to the St. Margaret School.

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"In addition to all those things, this year we have the blessing of the monument," said St. Margaret Pastor Monsignor John O'Keefe. "Isn't it gorgeous? It's beautiful in the daytime, but it is magnificent at night."

The original monument consisted of a metal cross and a plaque, both of which have been incorporated into the new one that was designed and constructed as the Eagle Scout project of St. Margaret parishioner Andrew Hawkins, a senior at Nanuet High School.

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"That boy worked so hard," O'Keefe said. "It was a very, very hot summer. Thank God for that tree (providing shade).

"(This past) weekend, they brought in the stone slabs. It was a big deal because they weigh (800) pounds each. They had to get this hoist mechanism to lift them out of the truck. There were a lot of kids here working. I said to try to stay so people could see you working. I knew what would happen. I knew people would come to me and say 'What a wonderful thing our young people are doing. It gives you hope for the youth of Pearl River.' Things like that."

The memorial includes a stone patio with lights embedded in it, so the monument is lit from below at night. There are two stone benches as well as the standing slabs on either side of the cross which bear the names of residents of Pearl River and Nanuet lost to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"The lights in the patio reflect off the stone pillars, which are made to look like the two towers," O'Keefe said. "The other lights are under the stone benches. They reflect around and it's a really brilliant effect."

O'Keefe said he told Hawkins recently that he doesn't remember what the youth looks like when he has clean from seeing him working on the project so often.

"He is so hands-on with this stuff," O'Keefe said. "Every once in a while you get kids who seem to have bypassed adolescence. Their maturity and responsibility is just on a different level where you don't have to tell them what to do. They kinda know."

Hawkins said he noticed the old monument on the way to his car from Mass and thought it needed to be improved.

"The memorial was shrouded in bushes and it had a sinkhole and it was really insignificant," Hawkins said. "I didn't think it paid tribute to the people who we lost on that tragic day, so I took it upon myself to create a project to design a memorial that would be more fitting for the community."

Hawkins had the support of other Boy Scouts as well as local professionals.

"Putting this together took a lot of manpower," Hawkins said. "It took almost 20 scouts and for me, almost 1,100 hours of work this summer, the past two months. It took a bunch of different professionals.

"It was a learning experience for me and the scouts. We got to try different skills and learn a lot of things. They got to take part in a really great thing. I'm really happy with how it came out and proud of my work on it."


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