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(609) 654-6602

NJ Lic. 13VH06395500

N.J. Lic. #NJTC768133

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In order to commemorate those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, monarch butterflies were set free in the memorial garden.

TRIBUTE

(Continued from Page 3) the lives lost.

“It’s always good to get out here for the remembrance ceremony and get the community together and engaged,” said Jeff Ruder, lieutenant of Medford Lakes Fire Department 371.

He told the Pine Barrens Tribune that he was sitting in a high school classroom watching what was taking place on television when the towers collapsed.

“I was an EMT [Emergency Medical Technician] at the time, and I remember watching the trucks go out, and the crews came back a day later, with the trucks covered in dust,” he recounted.

Monarch butterflies were set free by children in the local 9/11 memorial garden at the conclusion of the ceremony.

Miller recognized “the incredibly horrific sacrifice of thousands of individuals” on the day of the attacks and called those who responded to the tragedy “our heroes.”

Attending Girl Scouts from Troop 243 provided a timeline of events, noting it was around 8:46 a.m. when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 then struck the second tower of the World Trade Center.

Approximately 30 minutes later, at 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. At 9:59 a.m., the south tower collapsed, and at 10:28 a.m., the north tower also fell.

While all that was taking place, at 10:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, after passengers reportedly confronted the hijackers that were aboard the aircraft, with their heroic actions likely averting further destruction from taking place.

Rev. Tim Meadows, of Protestant Community Church, gave an opening prayer during the local remembrance ceremony intended to bring peace and solace to those lost in the attack.

“Today we commit ourselves to remember the lives lost and the families changed on this tragic day 21 years ago,” he declared. “We ask mercy to remain with those who lost people from their physical presence and have had to live their lives forward.”

Meadows also asked listeners of the service to be cognizant of the fragility of life and our freedoms.

AMBULANCE

(Continued from Page 4)

medical supplies.”

As Forward and Monaghan recounted the reception, their counterparts in Germany even had a bagged lunch and dinner, along with desserts and snacks, waiting for them, and “sent some members of their club out to send us off,” and the club’s president “absolutely insisted on hauling us over to the gas station and making sure the precise amount of air was in the tires” for the thousand-mile trip to the Ukrainian border.

From there, the journey, as Forward described it, proved to be a study in contrasts. On the first day, the pair found themselves traversing a landscape largely decimated by this summer’s European drought and heat wave, with the Rhine River having practically dried up and thousands of mature trees along the way having died, before finally stopping for the night in the historic city of Dresden. By contrast, the second day, according to Forward, consisted of a nerve-racking drive through torrential rains in Poland, where they encountered construction everywhere, finally ending up for the night in Communist-era accommodations, “the most basic hotel you could possibly imagine,” just short of the Polish-Ukrainian border.

The next morning, they were received by a delegation that represented what he referred to as the “global networks of Rotary,” which included Boris Bodnar, a Ukrainian raised in Britain, who had been the president of an international online-based Rotary Club as well as a past district governor for the entire country of Ukraine (and who had what Forward called the “really poor timing” to have moved back there from Britain a couple years ago).

It was at this point, standing in front of the local train station, with three minutes to spare before the pair’s train departed for Krakow, that Monaghan officially handed over the keys to the ambulance to Bodnar, who proceeded to drive it over the border to Lviv, its first stop in Ukraine.

There, the medical transport was picked up by members of a Ukrainian Rotary chapter called Unity, who proceeded to drive it across Ukraine (Europe’s second largest country in size after Russia itself) to Kharkiv, a city where, according to Forward, “the things that have happened at the hands of the Russians have been indescribably awful,” and where the donated ambulance was already being put into service by the time the pair were on a plane back to the states.

It was on that flight home that Forward and Monaghan realized that the mission they had just accomplished could not be a one-time effort but, if possible, would have to be the initial step in a campaign to bring more such relief to the civilian victims of this conflict. They thus decided to continue their fundraising efforts to purchase a second ambulance (an acquisition “already in the works,” according to Monaghan), and also to apply to the Rotary grant program for funding to obtain a third.

“They need as many vehicles as they can get,” Monaghan told those listening in on the Zoom session, adding that the Ukrainians who met them “were beyond grateful and thankful—you can tell this wasn’t something they took lightly.”

In addition to more ambulances, he said, the people there are also in need of items like water- purification equipment and tablets, as well as sanitary supplies and disposable personal protective equipment.

“So, please keep this project in your prayers and at the forefront of your giving plan,” Forward told his fellow Rotarians at the local club meeting Sept. 7 before introducing Bodnar, who had joined the remote session and in turn introduced Igor Savchykevych, the president of Rotary Ukraine Unity, a “passport club” with members all over the globe.

Bodnar noted that the ambulance, once having been delivered to Kharkiv, was put into active use very quickly, and is now assigned to the regional hospital there, in addition to which the medical supplies it contained were distributed throughout the city.

“It’s hard to express our gratitude for what

Keith Abrams

Lic# 1283