Community response for a memorial in Clinton for a Sept. 11 Memorial has been strong.
Bill Huther, one of the members of the committee to honor Clinton Central School graduate Edward Porter Felt, said people have been supportive with donations since the plan was announced in November. “We’re impressed with how the community is responding.’’
Huther, Peter Goodfriend, Paul Reilly and Skip Beardsall are heading up the effort to recognize Felt’s heroic measures taken Sept. 11, 2001 while aboard United Flight 93. Felt, a 1977 CCS graduate, was a passenger on the plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pa. when passengers overtook the terrorists trying to crash the plane into a Washington, D.C. landmark.
Felt’s family, including his mom, Shirley, are also involved in the project.
Goodfriend said since the announcement of a memorial in the CCS Memorial Brick Garden, he’s heard one common response. “It’s about time,’’ he said.
The Memorial will take the form of an engraved granite bench and an informational pedestal. Money raised will also go towards a scholarship in Felt’s name to be given to a Clinton graduate each year.
Felt, who was also a graduate of Colgate and Cornell universities, lived in New Jersey at the time of his death. The day before he decided to head to San Francisco on businesses but instead became one of the almost 3,000 people who died in the bombings that day; of those, 265 deaths were the victims on the four airplanes.
While the men organizing the Memorial are all members of the Clinton Fire Department, and firefighters played a huge part in that day’s tragedy, the fund raising and Memorial are not connected to the CFD.
But, being firemen did resonate with their desire to do something. “We all were severely impacted on Sept. 11 as firemen and citizens,’’ Goodfriend said. “I knew the Felt family. Good people. We need to keep this event in the minds…