Kaitlyn Mollo was in sixth grade when planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers. It was her first class of the day.
“I remember they just started wheeling TVs in all the rooms for us to watch it,” said Mollo, a junior majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies. “Since we were in New York and we were only four hours from the city, our school went on lockdown. We couldn’t talk to anybody. I don’t remember much after that.”
The younger generations won’t know the fear or the eerie silence that enveloped the nation. People will tell them of the heroism of the firefighters, police officers and armed forces. But Mollo remembers.
“My dad was a police officer and I remember a day or two after this happened he had to go down to the city to help the other police officers and other firefighters looking for bodies pulling them out and cleaning them up,” Mollo said.
“It took him a month to get the smell out of his nose.”
Mollo served in the Coast Guard and has since retired. She’s the president of the Student Veterans Organization. She sees the information gap in the younger generations.
“We’re already starting to get into those generations where they are learning about it in textbooks instead of knowing about it from being alive so it’s become official history now,” said Mollo.
“I went with the day of remembrance just to remind students about it and hopefully if it carries on to just keep reminding the younger generations of what happened,” said Mollo.
Last year’s turnout of 108 defied her expectations and guided her preparations for this year.
“I’m hoping that I can at least get 100 like last year. I purchased food for 50 because I’d rather run out of food than have too much, I don’t like to waste. For the video, I bought rights for up to 100. It’s tough to get students to show up to things,” said Mollo.
Students made cards that Mollo and the SVO sent to firefighters, EMS and police officers.
Nina Bernard, a 19-year-old senior majoring in biology, made one of the cards.
“From the ashes, hope and life can spring anew,” it said. She hopes the card will find its way to “someone who needs hope, someone who’s struggling.”
Students were also treated to the movie World Trade Center starring Nicolas Cage.
“I like it because it’s a true story but they turned it into an entertaining and traumatic movie, so it will still be educational for whoever watches it but it will be entertaining to watch, it won’t be a documentary,” said Mollo.
Less than 15 students attended the event. No student veterans, except Mollo, were present. But that made for an intimate setting.
“Everyone that was in the room talked to each other at some point, everyone talked to everybody, said Mollo.“That was my goal with having a smaller space, so I’m glad there wasn’t people pushing other people out.”
