I was just walking into our monthly board meeting when my wife called to say that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Speculation was that it was a commuter or sightseeing flight gone wrong. We started our meeting when our bookkeeper interrupted to say that a second commercial airliner had hit the second tower and the talk of a terrorist plot had begun. We convened the meeting, informed the employees of what happened and sent them all home. I spent the rest of the day glued to the tv, watching the footage and the subsequent crashes. It took everything I had to keep it together since I figured I had to stay strong for my wife and kids.

We lost a long-time family friend and three HS alumni in the towers. The friend was there for the first time for a meeting. The three alumni worked there.

Judy Keene, wife of Richard Keene (they and their kids have been family friends for 30+ years, he coached all of us at various times in every sport), and her sons have worked tirelessly in the aftermath in his memory by setting up a foundation that puts on sports clinics, sponsors youth sports leagues and renovated the community center sports facilities as a memorial to all who perished that day.

She was the first private citizen in the country to secure a couple beams for use in the memorial (one beam stands outside and one is mounted on a wall inside the gymnasium) and I believe she was the first private citizen to be allowed into the hangers containing all of the artifacts from that day.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)