Woodbridge remembers: Looking back as September 11 marks 25 years

It is sometimes difficult to believe that, later this week, a quarter-century will have passed since the morning of September 11, 2001.

As Woodbridge approaches the 25th anniversary this week, the Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Department is preparing once again to bring the community together in remembrance, with a memorial service at the Woodbridge Firehouse, 100 Center Road, on Friday, Sept. 11, at 8:45 a.m.

A look back through Woodbridge's history reveals other moments when our community gathered to remember. The image gallery below captures some of these commemorations. 

2011 Ceremony Commemorating 9/11

Fifteen years ago, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, residents, firefighters, town officials and community organizations came together at the firehouse for an especially heartfelt commemoration. They remembered the nearly 3,000 people who died, honored the first responders who ran toward danger, spoke of Woodbridge families who had lost loved ones — and dedicated a permanent memorial incorporating a piece of steel recovered from the World Trade Center.

Fortunately, that morning was also preserved on video. Watching the ceremony today allows us to hear how Woodbridge residents spoke about September 11 when only a decade had passed — what they remembered about that morning, what they had learned from it, and what they hoped those who came after them would never forget.

And it tells the story of the memorial that still stands outside the Woodbridge Firehouse today.

The 2011 ceremony was called to order by Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Department Chief Sean Rowland, who welcomed those gathered at the firehouse and introduced the morning's program. Then-First Selectman Edward M. Sheehy began his remarks simply: “Good morning, everyone,” he said. “On this beautiful day — a day not unlike the day 10 years ago…”

He placed the gathering in Woodbridge within a much larger national moment of remembrance. “Today, across the country, in ceremonies like this, Americans are gathering to remember and honor those who died or were injured and those who came to their rescue,” he said. Turning to what made the Woodbridge observance different, he said, “Here in Woodbridge, we not only have such a ceremony, but also a memorial dedication incorporating a piece of structural steel from the World Trade Center,” Sheehy said.

Sheehy passed away less than two years after the ceremony, in April 2013, while still serving as First Selectman. Hearing his familiar voice in the recording adds another poignant dimension for the community looking back. His tone is dignified and reassuring as he speaks for the Town and remembers those who were lost on 9/11. Sheehy reminded those gathered on Sept. 11, 2011, that while a decade had passed, the mourning had not. “Ten years have passed and we continue to mourn those family members, friends, neighbors and countrymen who were taken from us on that day,” he said.

He spoke, too, of the first responders — police officers, firefighters, emergency medical workers and search-and-rescue crews “who responded and risked and even lost their own lives in search of survivors at the places of attack.” 

The ceremony also brought the enormous national tragedy home. “The events of 9/11 have also touched the lives of four Woodbridge families,” Sheehy said.

He named Christopher William Murphy, 35, a Woodbridge native who had attended Beecher Road School in the 1970s and was working at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in the World Trade Center; Paul Joshua Friedman, 45, from Belmont, Massachusetts, who was aboard American Airlines Flight 11; and Joseph Paul McDonald III, 43, from Livingston, New Jersey, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center.

Their deaths touched four Woodbridge families. Sheehy explained that Christopher was the son of Virginia and William Murphy; Paul was the son-in-law of Elaine and Dick Ades, whose daughter Audrey was his wife; and Joseph was the nephew of Joseph and Gae Borland and a cousin of Michael and Beth Walters.

That morning, Woodbridge was not only remembering. It was dedicating something intended to make that remembrance permanent.

A piece of the World Trade Center comes to Woodbridge

The story of that steel had begun two years earlier. In September 2009, the Woodbridge Volunteer Fire Association learned that World Trade Center artifacts were being made available through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and submitted a request for a piece of steel.

The wait lasted well over a year. Finally, in January 2011, the department learned that Woodbridge would receive an artifact. On May 11, four Woodbridge firefighters traveled with a pickup truck to Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport and brought the steel home.

Then came another question: What should Woodbridge do with it?

The fire association turned to Silver/Petrucelli + Associates, architects of the then-new Woodbridge Firehouse. The firm invited its architects and engineers to propose designs for a permanent memorial, ultimately producing seven possibilities. The firefighters chose a design by architect Mary Bard.

Her connection to the project was deeply personal. Ten years earlier, Bard had been a New Yorker — and on the morning of September 11, she had been standing beneath Tower Two when the second airplane struck.

“What happened that day literally changed my life,” she wrote in explaining her design. The experience, and the days and weeks that followed, caused her to reconsider the direction of her life. She eventually left New York and relocated to Connecticut.

A memorial meant to be touched

The firefighters chose Bard's design for another important reason. Other proposals elevated the World Trade Center steel. Bard's brought it close to the ground. That meant a young child such as those attending Beecher Road School could reach out and touch it. So could an older resident, a visitor using a wheelchair, or someone on crutches. The association considered that accessibility especially important: everyone could “touch a piece of history.”

Architect David Stein explained the symbolism of the completed memorial at its dedication. Steel, he said, represented “strength,” “stability,” “ingenuity” and, perhaps most importantly, “resilience.”

The artifact was positioned slightly above water, a material Stein noted had long been used to calm the senses. Looking into the water, a visitor might see his or her own reflection — an invitation to contemplate both the past and the future. And after dark, another feature emerged. Spotlights cast the steel's silhouette against the white clapboard firehouse, creating what Stein described as “the illusion of Two Towers.” The artifact recovered from the rubble had, he said, “finally found its resting place for future generations.”

A community builds it together

Even the construction of the memorial became a story about community. The dedication came just after Hurricane Irene had battered Connecticut. Woodbridge firefighters responded to more than 100 calls during a three-day period — an extraordinary number for a department that ordinarily handled roughly 400 calls in an entire year at that time. The department was exhausted. But September 11 was approaching, and the memorial wasn't finished.

Then the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee brought still more rain and mud. Firefighters continued working. Some took time off from their regular jobs. The Woodbridge Garden Club joined the effort, working side by side with firefighters to complete the memorial plantings in a matter of hours. Local businesses contributed materials and assistance.

It was a fitting way to build a memorial to a day remembered not only for unimaginable destruction and loss, but also for extraordinary acts of courage, generosity and service.

“We didn't know what else to do”

Among those who spoke at the 2011 ceremony was Leslie Martino, a member of the Woodbridge Garden Club who was also serving as president of the Beecher Road School PTO at the time of the attacks.

Like so many people who lived through September 11, Martino remembered precisely what she had been doing when the incomprehensible news began arriving. Garden Club members had been preparing for a meeting scheduled for noon that day. They went ahead and gathered in a member's backyard, Martino recalled, because “we didn't know what else to do.”

“We were scared, incredulous, shocked, saddened, angry and confused,” she said, recalling the uncertainty about what had happened, what might happen next, and where. As the days and weeks passed, she recalled, families struggled to comprehend “the enormity of the tragedy,” the meaning of terrorism, the heroism they had witnessed and what the attacks meant for the country.

It is also worth noting that for Woodbridge parents there was an immediate and intensely local concern the morning of September 11: their children. At Beecher Road School, teachers had turned off classroom televisions — only recently installed throughout the school for curriculum enhancement — so children would not be exposed to the shocking images being broadcast repeatedly that morning.

The PTO had also recently introduced a new email communication system, the Beecher BELL, at a time when such communication between the school and its families was itself brand new. On September 11, the superintendent quickly recognized its value and asked that it be used to get an urgent message to families. Parents were told they could pick up their children early if they wished, but there was no need to rush to the school. They were told their children were safe at Beecher Road School.

With telephone lines jammed and calls difficult or impossible to complete across the tri-state area, that email message brought enormous relief to anxious Woodbridge families. Some parents later remarked that they were the only people in their workplaces who knew for certain that their children’s school was safe.

“Future generations never forget”

During the 2011 ceremony, a letter from U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro reflected on the solidarity that followed the attacks and the way communities had come together. The new Woodbridge memorial, she wrote, honored those who had died and their families while helping to ensure that “future generations never forget how one minute in one hour in one day can change everything.”

Those future generations are here now. Soon, twenty-five years will have passed since September 11, 2001. Children born after the attacks are adults. Many children growing up in Woodbridge today know September 11 only from history lessons. And even among those of us who lived through it, memories of how our own community responded can fade with time.

But Woodbridge did remember. Its residents gathered. Its firefighters brought a piece of the World Trade Center home. Architects, gardeners, businesses, volunteers and first responders created a place where neighbors could come to reflect — and where a child could reach out and touch a piece of history.

The memorial remains there today in front of our Fire House on Center Road. And this coming Friday morning, 25 years after the attacks, Woodbridge will gather beside it once again.

Woodbridge remembers September 11, 2011

The entire 10th-anniversary ceremony and memorial dedication was recorded for WGATV. The recording preserves not simply the formal speeches, but the voices, music, silences and faces of a Woodbridge community still close enough to September 11 to remember vividly how the day had felt. Click below to watch.

One of the camera operators that day was Michael D. Helfenbein, then a senior at Amity Regional High School. Helfenbein, the author’s eldest son, had been a 7-year-old just starting second grade at Beecher Road School on September 11, 2001.