A trailer wrap aids a campaign to remember United Flight 93’s heroes.
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By Steve Aust
Virtually every American adult remembers where they were the morning of September 11, 2001. Listening to the radio on my way to work at ST’s former offices in downtown Cincinnati, the WNKU morning DJ announced, “A plane has crashed into a World Trade Center [WTC] tower.” Although distressing, the news conjured a mental picture of the explosives-loaded truck that detonated at the WTC in 1993 and claimed a handful of lives and inflicted significant, but sustainable, damage. However, arriving at the office and watching crash-site footage with the crowd gathered around the break-room TV harshly conveyed the tragedy’s severity.
The attack on the Twin Towers gripped the world for weeks and catalyzed a tremendous outpouring of national pride and charitable contributions. Although the horrible event merited such a response, the heroic efforts of the crew and passengers aboard Flight 93 that same morning have received less attention. Hijackers overpowered the pilots of the Newark-to-San Francisco flight; these terrorists reportedly planned to crash the plane into the White House or Capitol building. However, Todd Beamer – whose famous exhortation, “Let’s roll,” embodies courage under unfathomable duress – and several other passengers thwarted the terrorists’ plot and instead brought the plane down near Shanksville, PA.
-->Fortunately, such bravery, when facing the prospect of certain death, won’t go unnoticed. Thanks to the intertwined efforts of a charitable organization, a trucking company, a vinyl manufacturer and a vehicle-graphics provider, the fundraising efforts to honor these brave individuals enjoy a strong chance of success.
Wheels in motion
The HALO (Hope Always Lives On) Foundation, an Akron, OH-based charitable organization, launched 93 cents for Flight 93, a fundraising campaign that enlisted the help of schools, to raise money to build a permanent memorial near the Shanksville crash site. Sharon Deitrick, owner of Deitrick & Assoc. Interior Design and HALO’s founder, had connections to the area because she frequently vacationed in the Somerset-Shanksville area with relatives. It served as the halfway point between Akron and Washington, D.C., where her relatives lived. “We befriended the town,” she recalled.
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