Rise St. Pete, the city’s memorial to those lost on September 11, 2001, was inaugurated in a brief ceremony on Sunday afternoon. A crowd of about 100 gathered near the intersection of 22nd Street and 5th Avenue South as the founders of the $ 500,000 project discussed its beginnings and the process of making it happen. They also discussed the symbolism in the design of the monument.
Scott Neil, a member of the first Special Operations Force to invade Afghanistan after 9/11 – the legendary Horse Soldiers – led Rise St. Pete in 2018. When part of New York’s Ground Zero was being prepared for installation of a Horse Soldier statue, a seven-foot piece of broken steel and concrete was discovered underground.
The two-ton beam, which is considered to be one of the last remaining steel parts of the World Trade Center, was handed over to Neil and his team, who were relocating their company American Freedom Distillery to St. Petersburg at the time.
RELATED STORY: St. Pete’s 9-11 Memorial is scheduled to be erected in September
The reclaimed beam forms the centerpiece of the memorial, which is located in the Warehouse Arts District. Sculptor Mark Aeling, President of the Warehouse Arts District Association, designed and made the 7-meter-high copper bird wing that rises behind the beam, which is itself mounted on a stone pylon.
Neil and Aeling spoke during Sunday’s inauguration, along with Ron Schlosser, treasurer of the nonprofit organization Rise St. Pete, and St. Petersburg poet laureate Helen Pruitt Wallace, whose poem Rise is carved into the pylon.
The monument’s domed background – symbolizing the rising sun of a new day – features a mosaic of blue tiles created by local artists – and children.
“There has to be a lot of storytelling here for our kids,” said Neil. “Because they have no emotions and no memory of what we experienced on September 11th.
“It’s up to us to come here and tell more stories. And the last project I would like to see here is a website with interviews – from citizens, from soldiers, from people who were affected by 9/11. Because that will endure together with this project. “
The A-Team: General Contractor Rod Huffman, left, Rise St. Pete Treasurer Ron Schlosser, sculptor Mark Aeling, and Rise President (and creator) Scott Neil.
Rise St. Pete website
The post Rise, St. Petersburg’s 9/11 Memorial, is dedicated to • St. Pete Catalyst first appeared on Daily Florida Press.from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/rise-st-petersburgs-9-11-memorial-is-dedicated-to-st-pete-catalyst/
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