Overland Park dedicates 9/11 memorial at Fire Training Center

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KSHB: OVERLAND PARK 9/11 MEMORIAL DEDICATION 120911

SEPT. 11, 2012 - Onlookers take in the 9/11 Memorial at the Overland Park Fire Traning Center on the 11-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
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Posted: 09/11/2012

By: 41 Action News Staff

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - Eleven years after the worst terrorist attacks in American history, a memorial honoring the victims was dedicated in Overland Park, Kan.

The dedication ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial at the Overland Park Fire Training Center, 12401 Hemlock, began at 7:15 a.m. Tuesday.

The ceremony dedicated the first phase of a larger memorial project that will be one of the largest 9/11 memorial projects in the nation.

The Arts and Recreation Foundation of Overland Park needs $60,000 dollars to complete the project. The foundation did not use public dollars fund the project and is looking for addition donors.

RELATED | Other 9/11 anniversary events in and around KC http://bit.ly/SzUS4C

Organizers believe Overland Park's memorial is the most intricately-designed and publicly-accessible.

The memorial includes a 14 foot, 5,600 pound steel beam from the World Trade Center. The beam has a hole near the upright tip that will cast a shadow on four panels marking each of the four planes that crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. At the exact time each plane hit, the shadow will be marked on the panels to forever remember those moments in history.

“It is pretty awe-inspiring when you stand here next to it,” said Overland Park Fire Department Spokesman Jason Rhodes. “It brings back a lot of what happened that day. We want people to not only see it, but we want them to be able to walk up to it and touch it and feel it and reconnect so they can remember it."

At 7:30 a.m., flags were lowered to half staff. At 7:46 a.m., an Honor Guard member struck a bell and held a wreath ceremony to mark when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower.

The same was done to mark the times when the second tower was hit (8:03 a.m.), when the Pentagon was hit (8:37 a.m.), when the South Tower collapsed (8:59 a.m.), when the fourth plane crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pa. (9:03 a.m) and when the North Tower collapsed (9:29 a.m.).

Event program (pdf): http://bit.ly/Pea7JP

Overland Park 9/11 Memorial informational video: http://youtu.be/ABbGvbW18A8