Exhibit arrives Thursday

Monday marked the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

On Thursday, an exhibit that serves as a tribute to those who lost their lives that day in 2001 will roll into Jay County.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s 9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit is expected to arrive in Bryant about 2 p.m. Thursday. From there it will receive an escort from local emergency responders, coming into Portland on U.S. 27 and then turning east on Votaw Street to Jay County Fairgrounds.

The exhibit, which will be set up between the Bubp Building and the Optimist stand and the fairgrounds, will be open in conjunction with the Indiana Military Preservation Association Rally and Swap Meet.

“It’s going to be a really neat thing,” said Museum of the Soldier volunteer Jim Waechter, who led the effort to have the exhibit to be on display in Jay County, told Portland City Council last month. “If you’re 22 years old and younger, you weren’t even born when this happened. So this is history. …

“For those of us who are old … that lived through it, it’s worth going back and looking through it. It’s really impressive.”

The exhibit features an 83-foot tractor-trailer that expands to an 1,100-square-foot exhibit. Two firefighters who responded to the 9/11 attacks in New York will be on hand to provide guided tours. The exhibit offers interactive education including artifacts from the World Trade Center towers, documentary videos and recordings of first responder radio transmissions. (For more information, visit t2t.org.)

“It’s awesome,” said Waechter. 

The exhibit will be open to the public from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the fairgrounds. There will be a closing ceremony with the Mercer County Fireman’s Honor Guard at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

It is being displayed in conjunction with the Indiana Military Vehicle Preservation Association Rally and Swap Meet, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Museum of the Soldier, 510 E. Arch St., will also be open.

Tunnel to Towers Foundation is a non-profit organization named in honor of New York firefighter Stephen Siller, who drove to Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in an effort to respond following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. Finding the tunnel already blocked for security reasons, he carried 60 pounds of gear through the tunnel to the towers, where he died during the rescue effort.

More than 600,000 visitors have seen the 9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit. It was in Tenafly, New Jersey, Tuesday and will head to the City of Quincy on Sept. 20.

Both the 9/11 exhibit and the military vehicle rally are free.