Jacobi Medical Center once again brought together hospital staff, community members and elected officials to remember the lives lost and reflect on the hospital’s own experience the morning of September 11th, 2001.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi | North Central Bronx held its annual 9/11 remembrance ceremony Friday, Sept. 11, at the hospital’s Memorial Garden, a tradition that has continued for more than two decades.
Children from P.S. 108 opened this year’s ceremony with song before names were read aloud inside the memorial garden. Those in attendance later placed flowers at the memorial.
The participation of the students carried particular meaning on the 25th anniversary. None of the children were alive on Sept. 11, 2001, as the responsibility of remembering that day continues to pass to a new generation.
The memorial at Jacobi was built in 2004 with funding secured by the late State Sen. Guy Velella. Located in a quiet area of the hospital campus, the memorial includes two granite markers representing the footprints of the Twin Towers and bears the names of 156 people who lived or worked in the Bronx and were killed on Sept. 11.
This year’s anniversary also offered a look back at what was happening inside Jacobi as the attacks unfolded.
Ahead of the ceremony, Jacobi shared video testimonials from employees who recalled where they were when they first learned a plane had struck the World Trade Center and how the hospital quickly began preparing for what was expected to be a large-scale emergency.
Christopher Fugazy, senior associate executive director at Jacobi, recalled being on the Hutchinson River Parkway when he could see smoke coming from the direction of Manhattan.
“I could see smoke billowing away from the city from the Hutch,” Fugazy said. “I arrived in the executive office, and we were already in full disaster mode.”
On the morning of the attacks, Jacobi established a triage area in its ambulance bay and prepared to receive victims as hospitals across the city mobilized.
The employee recollections added another layer to an annual ceremony that has long been part of Jacobi and the surrounding Morris Park community.
Hospital leadership, doctors, nurses, staff members and local leaders have gathered at the memorial year after year for prayers, music, readings and the reading of the names.
25 years later, the ceremony continues to remember those who never returned home while also preserving the stories of the New Yorkers who were called upon to respond.
For the employees who remember Sept. 11 firsthand and the children now learning about it, Jacobi’s memorial remains a place to make sure those stories are not forgotten.
