A generation of Americans is coming of age with no personal memory of the 9/11 terror attacks — and a new exhibit at New York’s 9/11 Memorial and Museum is working to bridge the gap.
Twenty-five years after hijacked planes leveled New York City’s iconic Twin Towers in a simultaneous attack that struck the Pentagon and a remote field in Pennsylvania, nearly 100 million Americans are too young to remember the day that changed the city and nation forever.
“This is a significant milestone,” Beth Hillman, president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, located at Ground Zero, said Tuesday at a preview of the new exhibit.
“Many, in my generation, remember exactly where we were on that horrific day. Yet 100 million Americans were not even born or are too young to remember that day for themselves today. Each year, we vow to never forget. As time moves forward, that now becomes even more important.”
The new exhibit, “In Their Honor: 25 Years of 9/11 Inspired Service,” explores the legacy and enduring impact of service inspired by the national and local response to Sept. 11, 2001.
Though parents, pictures and personal accounts have brought to life that day for those too young to remember, the new exhibit shows how individuals and communities transformed grief into action and explores how their efforts touched lives across the country and around the world.
“At that age, I couldn’t begin to grasp the magnitude of what had happened,” said Logan Miller, who was an 8-year-old second grader at Public School 203 in Bayside at the time of the attack.
“My parents were visibly shaken and at that age, I spent hours just watching them on the phone in the kitchen, trying to figure out what was happening.”
Logan lost his uncle, New York State Supreme Court Officer Sergeant Mitchel Scott Wallace, in the attacks and now serves on the museum’s Visionary Leadership Council.
Also new on the museum’s must-see list is an exhibit entitled “Our Flag Was Still There.”
This exhibit showcases a collection of American flags and highlights additional objects that show the significance of the flag as a symbol of strength in the face of adversity, Hillman said.
“We also want America to honor the spirit of 9/12, where people of all backgrounds and ideologies came together in a spirit of patriotism and unity,” she said.
For more than two decades, museum officials have said they have seen the attack as a teaching moment, and the milestone anniversary is no different.
“This anniversary offers us this really important opportunity to make sure that the stories, the lessons, the legacy of 9/11, which are captured so beautifully and in their honor, are preserved not just for this generation, but for generations to come,” said Noah Rauch, the museum’s senior vice president of education and public information.
Rauch said the museum will also offer on site and virtual field trips for grades 3 through 12 to help students understand what happened on 9/11 and the ongoing relevance of the attacks.