SOMERSET COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — A groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday in Somerset County with plans to honor some of Pennsylvania’s heroes.
The ‘Remember Me Rose Garden,’ near Shanksville, serves as a living tribute to the passengers and crew of Flight 93 who died defending the nation on September 11, 2001.
Now, this hallowed ground is being broken again for another living memorial, this one dedicated to the firefighters who sacrificed for their neighbors.
State Senator Pat Stefano says those same values of courage and sacrifice aboard Flight 93 are embodied every day by our first responders.
“When the alarm sounds, when the scanners go off, firefighters don’t know what awaits them. They just simply answer the call. They run towards danger while everyone else is running away.”
State Representative Carl Metzgar remembers where he was when that plane went down and the ground shook. He says the men and women of Somerset County took action.
“They went and got their rifles. They gathered together because we didn’t know what was happening that day, but we knew whoever it was who was doing that to us was not gonna make it past Dividing Ridge; we were holding the line at Dividing Ridge.”
Diane Ginter is president of the Pennsylvania Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Her husband Craige died while fighting a fire in 2021 and the happenstance of Thursday August 6th has special significance.
“Today is his birthday. He would have been 63 years old today.”
She says they are still in need of donations in order to start construction for the memorial.
“If every fire company in the state of Pennsylvania could donate $300, we would have this monument started tomorrow.”
Ginter says 840 Pennsylvania firefighters have died in the line of duty since 1836 and unfortunately, that number is sure to grow.
Once the monument is built, the families of Pennsylvania’s fallen first responders will have a place to reflect and remember.