Effort underway to fund 9/11 garden's upkeep

It's the quiet days when the pain surfaces for Ellen Saracini, the family milestones that sting without her late husband, pilot Victor Saracini.

Birthdays. Graduations. Her daughters' first kisses. Their proms.

Fourteen years after Victor's United Airlines plane was hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center's South Tower, Saracini has learned that those occasions can be harder than the memorial-filled, nationally marked anniversary of his death.

"This is your hard day," her daughter once told an interviewer about reliving 9/11 each year. "Every day is our hard day."

Perhaps that's why Saracini has dedicated herself to several causes to honor her husband since his death - developing a memorial garden in Lower Makefield, for example, and pushing pilot-safety legislation in Washington.

And perhaps that's why, this year, she's adding another ambitious item to the list: attempting to raise $2 million for the garden's continued upkeep.

In a partnership with jeweler Steven Singer and talk-show host Michael Smerconish, Saracini, 55, is selling 9/11 memorial pins for $10 each, the proceeds of which are to go toward the Garden of Reflection.

"This is a beautiful memorial with a peaceful meaning, and it needs to be preserved," she said in an interview this week.

The park costs about $50,000 annually to maintain, she said, and she wants its funding to continue from private donations so that taxpayers in Lower Makefield don't end up footing the bill.

Singer and Smerconish, who also contributes opinion columns to The Inquirer, agreed to support her effort last month, Saracini said.

The two had mounted a similar effort to support the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., Singer said, contributing about $350,000 total.

Singer produces the pins and sells them online, and Smerconish promotes the effort on his various shows. The new effort has already proven fruitful. In just a few weeks, Singer said, the pins have raised $50,000 for the Lower Makefield garden.

Saracini hopes the group will sell enough pins to eventually reach her $2 million goal.

The loss of her husband can still be painful, she said, but preserving his memory is something she said she needs to do.

"We can't just remember the day that took them from us," she said. "We have to remember that there was a father, and a brother, and a sister all behind that day . . . and that's what the Garden of Reflection is about."

Museum service. The National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum in Coatesville has scheduled its annual 9/11 service to start at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

The service, set for 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., will feature the ringing of a bell at specific times and remarks by local dignitaries about the events that occurred at those times on Sept. 11, 2001.

Steel trident-shaped beams from the Twin Towers are to be on display all day. Light refreshments are to be served, and the museum is to offer free tours until 4 p.m. The last tour is set to begin at 3 p.m.

The museum is at 50 S. First Ave., Coatesville, 19320. Its website is www.steelmuseum.org.

609-217-8305@cs_palmer