By JUDY RATTNER
Tucked away in the northwest corner of the Village Green, at Maple and Lee avenues, is an eight-ton granite monument and memorial inscribed with the names of those who died. "Forever in our hearts, thoughts and prayers," it says. "We will never forget those from our community lost on September 11, 2001." Inscribed on the back is the quotation: "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die." Two three-and-a-half ton side pieces bear the names of each of the close to 50 victims of the World Trade Center attacks who were part of the Rockville Centre community.
Residents of the village along with their families and friends were invited to a second Candlelight Vigil on the Village Green at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2002 to mark the anniversary of the village's response to the terror attacks of 9/11. During that vigil, the new memorial was dedicated. Sen. Dean Skelos, who, along with Assemblyman Bob Barra, helped to secure grant money for the memorial, spoke at the second gathering.
The We Care RVC Fund, a special committee that grew out of the Rockville Centre Community Fund established years earlier by former Mayor Eugene Murray, was set up right after the terrorist attacks to provide direct, confidential assistance to Rockville Centre families who had lost a loved one. A separate Memorial Fund, led by current Village Justice Bill Croutier, was responsible for planning, organizing and building the memorial entirely with donated funds, materials and labor. The group raised $50,000 to erect the memorial and to establish a reserve fund to maintain it.
"We had so many people in the village set it up," said Murray. "People did so much of the work. There were funds collected by a number of different groups. School children were a big part of it. Not only did they raise funds to pay for it, but they established a reserve fund to maintain it, and to this day it is very well-maintained."
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