by Cris Italia
Superintendent Dr. Herb Brown of the Oceanside School District had heard inklings about services throughout Oceanside, and decided to call a meeting of all community leaders. "I had heard that several organizations were going to plan something for Sept. 11, and I thought why have people scrambling around on that day, we should come up with something and make it a joint effort," Brown said.
In the spring, Brown met with community leaders and split the responsibility into three sub-committees. "We wanted to do this right so we broke up into smaller groups, with each group handling a different part of the ceremony," Brown explained.
One of the heads of the sub-committee is Tony Iovino, a lawyer from Oceanside. "I headed the committee on what would actually be part of the memorial," Iovino said. "There was a committee on what would be part of the ceremony and another committee on organizing a community day, which we would have annually."
With the committees first meeting in June, members have decided on a "Garden and Waterfall" theme. "We wanted to do something that dignified and memorialized the people lost and the heroes who spent countless hours at ground zero," said school board member Diane O'Connor, who also serves as the president of Community Services for Oceanside.
The "Garden and Waterfall" will be built at School House Green and stand about 6 to 7 feet high. The project has been overseen by Betsy Transom of the Oceanside Education Foundation. The committee hired Elizabeth DeFranco Landscape Design to create the memorial at School House Green.
"More than anything, we wanted a place for people of Oceanside to go to and sit and think, and at the same time memorialize the day," O'Connor said.
The ceremony will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. Included in the ceremony will be song of patriotism and peace, led by a chorus of Oceanside school children. Also included will be a benediction and ceremonial laying of flowers in remembrance of those lost.
"It was hard just to put this together because it just brings everything back," O'Connor said. "As the day gets closer your realize how hard this was last year and how difficult it was to deal with."
"I think we wanted to make sure that this would be sensitive to the families and the people of Oceanside and hope they come out," Brown said. "This is a community-wide event."
Plans for the memorial will only be done with phase one come Sept. 11. The committee says they need funds to finish the rest of the project. "We received a grant from Senator Dean Skelos," Transom said. "We could use some of the funds to finish the project. We are asking businesses or individuals who would like to get involved and donate to contact us."
Donations for the memorial can be sent to the Oceanside Education Foundation at 145 Merle Avenue in Oceanside. Checks can be made out to the Oceanside Education Foundation.
The second phase of the memorial will only be complete when the foundation has enough money. "Depending on what will be raised that's when I will go into the memorial," Transom said.
