The Flight 93 National Memorial is only a short distance from Pitt-Johnstown and may provide students, faculty and campus organizations with easily accessible educational opportunities while it pays tribute to those who lost their lives Sept. 11, 2001.

Located in Stoystown and approximately a 35-minute drive from campus, the memorial recognizes those who died in the Flight 93 airliner crash.

Before the memorial was built, community members organized a 15km run to raise funds for its construction. This gesture demonstrates the selflessness of a community that joined together and supported a project meant to honor selfless sacrifice by Flight 93 passengers who brought down a plane apparently headed to create even more victims.

Professors, particularly those teaching history courses, may be able to utilize the memorial for supplemental instruction by adding another dimension to classroom discussion.

Taking students to visit the memorial could further the lecture’s depth and may allow the material to better resonate with students due to the memorial’s real-world and local connection.

Pitt-Johnstown clubs and campus organizations could organize trips to the memorial for a similar purpose.

Programming board plans bus trips for students. It may be a more somber trip than previous outings to amusement parks and sporting events, but provides those who visit with a reflective experience.

We recognize the memorial’s main purpose: to serve as a reminder of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and how the attacks in New York City affected even those in Johnstown, and we applaud the community members’ success of raising money to help build the memorial.