Tara Jones
The Lima News, Ohio
SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP — A piece of 9/11 history now resides at Shawnee Township Fire Department.
Jeff Rosebrock and Ken Ford of the Allen County 9/11 Memorial Foundation returned Wednesday afternoon from Washington D.C. with the donated limestone from the front of the Pentagon near where the airplane impacted on Sept. 11, 2001.
The nearly three-foot wide piece of limestone will be a part of the proposed 9/11 Memorial that has been designed to sit next to the fire department.
Rosebrock, President of the foundation, wanted to bring a memorial to the area to always remember the lives lost.
“I’m personally in the military, so it’s near and dear to my heart, and I know as a son of a firefighter what that day meant to my dad,” Rosebrock said. “It’s just something I think we can do as a community and make it a community-wide project to make the community come together and work on it.”
Though the Shawnee Township Fire Department and Lima area may not have direct ties to the events on 9/11, Rosebrock said it’s an event that impacted everyone across the country.
“I never want to lose sight of that day and the impact that it had on our country and the tragic lives we lost,” he said. “It’s like throwing a stone in the pond and it ripples throughout and affects everybody.”
The committee also hopes the proposed memorial will help educate future generations.
“My children weren’t alive for that, so this is important for me so they can see it and put things into perspective from that day,” Rosebrock said. “I foresee the entire 10-county area being able to come to the memorial for field trips. It’s right here in Shawnee, but look at all the area schools that can all come to this and use it as a teaching mechanism.”
Fundraising efforts are still ongoing for the memorial. All proceeds from the Laughter Saves Lives comedy show at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 30, at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center will go toward the memorial.
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©2019 The Lima News (Lima, Ohio)