Thursday, October 1, 2026
For State Sen. Steve Rhoads, the sound of firehouse bells on Sept. 11, 2001, remains one of the clearest memories of that day.
Rhoads, a Wantagh High School alumnus, then a 32-year-old practicing attorney and a volunteer firefighter, was on his way to Queens Supreme Court when he saw smoke rising from the World Trade Center. He returned to his office in Mineola before reporting to the Wantagh Fire Department, where his Company Five was sent to Long Island City to provide fire-protection coverage for a Queens fire company whose firefighters had been deployed to Ground Zero.
While in Long Island City that night, Rhoads said he heard the FDNY’s traditional five-bell signal for a firefighter killed in the line of duty ring repeatedly.
“The realization that every time that bell would sound, that it was another firefighter who would not be returning home to his family was something that I will always remember,” Rhoads said.
Last Friday, 25 years later, Rhoads stood among students, educators, first responders, veterans and community members at Wantagh High School as the school district dedicated a monument intended to make sure those memories — and the people behind them — remain close to home.
The memorial, several years in the making, features a 1:170-scale replica of the twin towers of the World Trade Center atop a Pentagon-shaped base. Twelve names of Wantagh residents who died in the attacks are etched in granite. The towers are illuminated at night, and the benches that surround them recognize the organizations and individuals whose contributions helped make the project possible.
The ceremony marked the culmination of work led by Wantagh High’s assistant principal, Christopher Widmann, chairman of the district’s 9/11 committee, which was formed in 2024. When the project began, Widmann said, the committee was unsure what it could accomplish.
“Maybe we could get, like, a big stone with a plaque on it and put the list of the names of the people on there,” he recalled thinking.
Instead, raising funds at the annual Wantagh Warrior 9/11 Memorial 5K Run, and supported by the Gary Sinise Foundation, the Wantagh 6-12 Association, Orlin & Cohen Orthopedic Group and Nassau County Legislator Michael Giangregorio’s office, the Wantagh 9/11 Memorial Committee created something much larger.
The 5K, Widmann said, has grown into a community event of its own, drawing nearly 800 runners last year, along with hundreds of spectators. This year’s race is scheduled for Sunday.
“This is something that I don't think any of us really thought we would be standing in front of 25 years later,” Widmann said.
His work with the Gary Sinise Foundation also helped shape the district’s emphasis on education. Tom Gibbs, the foundation’s director of education outreach, said the project began with the vision of Wantagh High Principal Paul Guzzone.
“This would never have happened without him first dreaming big to teach and engage with the next generation,” Gibbs said of Guzzone. “He represents the very foundation of our educational mission to connect generations.”
The foundation previously took Wantagh students to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, along with World War II veterans as part of its Soaring Valor program. The foundation later sponsored a trip for about 150 Wantagh students to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan.
The district has made firsthand learning a central part of its 9/11 education, and continued fundraising will support an annual trip for 11th-graders to the museum, where they receive guided tours and hear from people who experienced the attacks or took part in the recovery.
“Getting students out there to hear it, to see it, and to experience the sites firsthand is absolutely paramount to the mission,” Gibbs said.
That mission is especially important to Widmann because an entire generation of Wantagh students has grown up after Sept. 11. He compared it to Pearl Harbor, an event that all but a few Americans know only through photos and history books.
“We wanted the kids to be able to understand that community members from here, who lived here, who graduated from here, they perished that day,” Widmann said. “And we wanted the kids to be able to walk by and reflect on that every time they walk by that memorial.”
During last week’s dedication, at which students filled the area behind the monument, Widmann read the names of the Wantagh residents who died, sharing details about their lives. Their family members then placed flowers at the monument.
Guzzone presented a wooden carving of an American flag to Gibbs in recognition of the foundation’s support. A bagpiper and drummer played taps.
District Superintendent John McNamara and Board of Education President Jennifer Perfetti also reflected on the significance of the memorial. “Looking at this beautiful monument, I am overwhelmed with immense pride,” McNamara said. “To be a part of the Wantagh community is to know a rare brand of solidarity.”
“These individuals are not distant figures in a history textbook,” Perfetti said of the names on the monument. “They are our neighbors, our family members and our friends.”
For Rhoads, that’s what will make memorials like this one important for generations that have no firsthand memory of the attacks. “These things are important to reinforce the message that this isn't just a date in history,” he said, “that these were real people that were impacted, real lives, and real lessons that we hope are learned as we go forward.”
Gibbs said he hoped those lessons extend beyond the school. “I hope they tell their kids that their community came together to memorialize and recognize ordinary people whose lives were taken abruptly by the events of Sept. 11,” he said.
Widmann added that he hoped the monument would continue to inspire that effort simply by being there, with its names visible to students walking past it each day. “Sept. 11 was a day filled with darkness,” he said. “But darkness does not have to be the end of the story.”
