Setting Up in Auditorium Square. Thursday afternoon. Blogfinger photo by Paul Goldfinger
By Yvette Blackman, Contributing Writer @Blogfinger
Ten years later, shoes fill a triangular patch of Auditorium Square Park: men’s work boots, sandals, slippers, wedge heels. Each pair, accompanied by a small American flag, represents one of the lives lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
A pair of blue and white Nike sneakers. The tiger print ladies’ pumps. The brown suede boots that only a man could wear.
And there among the 2,974 pairs, new and worn, sits a pair of white Mary Jane shoes made for a child. They might easily represent the youngest victim, 2-year-old Christine Lee, who died aboard Flight 175 when it crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on that sunny September morning in 2001.
By Paul Goldfinger Thursday afternoon
Even to most of us who didn’t lose someone in the worst terrorist attacks on American soil or didn’t know of someone whose life was lost that day, the 10th anniversary represents a time for national and international reflection. And among the exhibits and relics on display nationwide is the 9/11 Empty Shoe Memorial that was set up in Ocean Grove Thursday afternoon by employees and volunteers of a Christian radio station.
The memorial officially opens at dawn Friday and will run through dusk next Monday.
Little girl's shoes. Photo by Yvette Blackman
“We don’t want to forget what happened on 9/11. But we also want to be able to look forward to the future with hope. The shoes really represent that. They sit here with the flag and they represent a life that was lost,” said Jennifer Garibay-Weiss, promotions manager at Star 99.1 FM, which organized the four-day exhibit.
The Star 99.1 team laid out 2,974 pairs of shoes and flags in neat rows in the park outside the Great Auditorium as Garibay-Weiss encouraged spectators to write a loved one’s name on a piece of paper and leave it in a shoe.
“These shoes are going to be moving forward and giving hope to somebody who might not have any right now,” Garibay-Weiss said. “This is not about an event, not about a day. It’s about the lives we lost.”
The radio station started a drive in June, collecting approximately 6,000 pairs of shoes. Then Hurricane Irene barreled in, swamping the station’s campus in tiny Zarephath, N.J., an unincorporated area of Franklin Township in Somerset County, under 13 feet of floodwaters. Ironically, Garibay-Weiss and one of her colleagues were among those who lost their possessions during the late August storm.
Suddenly, station organizers knew what they had to do with all those shoes.
“If it doesn’t rain, they’re all going to be donated … to churches and organizations in various communities to help people who were affected by Hurricane Irene,” Garibay-Weiss said.
And so, a remembrance of America’s darkest day has come to represent a measure of hope.
Photo by Barbara Brennan. September 9, 2011
The visual was jolting–I literally stopped in my tracks. I imagined the wearers of those shoes talking a lovely walk around town or jumping the ocean waves or walking to the ice cream store across the way–simple pleasures which they were robbed of. To see all those shoes lined up is a vision I will never forget–so profound and heartbreaking.
Paul,
With the current buzz about the possibility of terrorist activity this weekend, I thought sharing the following poem, which was printed in the New York Times shortly after the 9/11 tragedy, might be of interest for the Blogfinger. I read it every year at this time, and will be placing it in one of the “empty pair of shores” by the Great Auditorium.–Janet Whritner
FOR NO ONE KNOWS WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING
You must allow yourself to LAUGH
And not only to laugh, but to laugh HARDER,
LOUDER and LONGER
Than you ever have before.
You must allow yourself to SMILE
And to to smile WIDER, STRONGER and MORE
OFTEN
Than you ever have before.
When you EAT, you must TASTE your food
When you BREATHE, breathe DEEPLY
When you HUG, KISS or SHAKE HANDS
Do it FIRMLY and with COMPASSION
And when you say I LOVE YOU
MEAN IT
It is your LIFE, now your must LIVE it
For that is the greatest HONOR you can give to
anyone
Who never had a chance.
David Willem,
God bless America! A measure of hope for the future. Mark
Beautiful memorial, thank you for posting Blogfinger.
Seeing 2,974 pair of shoes is a true visual of the magnitude of the lives that were lost on that tragic day 10 years ago. I agree with Jane. It is very moving and I am sure will leave a lasting impression on all who are fortunate enough to view this memorial. Thank you to Star 99.1 and Jennifer Garibay-Weiss for organizing such a tribute and for the message of the measure of hope. Thank you, Blogfinger, for bringing these photos and article to us.
God Bless America!
It is one of the most moving things I have seen in a long time…………