“Where were you when the world stopped turning, that September day?,” is the question country music artist, Alan Jackson, has asked of us since 2002. Many of us remember that day, but often forget about those who responded to the calls for help that day and for the weeks and months to follow.

Russell Lovelace was six years old in 2001 when the Twin Towers fell. He remembers watching some coverage on the news and thinking it was something out of a movie that he was sure he wasn’t allowed to watch. The memory of the first responders risking their lives for others is one that has stayed with him for the last 23 years. He has built a replica of the World Trade Center Twin Towers that was based on over 3,000 photographs taken prior to the attack. In his model you will see each and every window etched into the building, tiny street signs and even people and benches where they were just prior to the attack.  This model took Russell eight months to build and detail. And now it is headed to Mitch Mendler,  a firefighter and president of Project 2978, a traveling 9/11 memorial exhibition. 

“Every year we lose first responders due to medical issues directly related to their service on 9/11,” Russell said, holding back tears. “All that I do and have done is to support these heroes. That event changed me and my country. My grandfather taught me about Pearl Harbor, about how people reacted and how it changed his generation. I feel like this is my Pearl Harbor to teach others about.”

Russell learned how to be a listening ear while working at the Missouri Veterans Home in Mexico. He listens to countless first responders’ stories and hears often how something as simple as the cannon being fired at A Walk Back in Time can trigger memories and a trauma response. Russell is compiling these stories into a collection that he hopes some day to publish. Among the artifacts that Russell had on display Saturday at the Mexico Farmers Market was a flag that was at the memorial site days after the attack. It is signed by a first responder and is still, 23 years later, covered in dust and soot from the site of the Twin Towers. 

Every day there are lives still affected by 9/11. First responders who continually have to be tested for and diagnosed with new medical issues; who used to be considered the epitome of physical fitness and now are reduced to using an oxygen tank to walk across a room. Such is Artie Giammarino Sr.’s life. Artie now spends his time between Staten Island, New York and Port Ritchey, Florida. Every year he coordinates a 9/11 memorial service in Florida. After the service they have a reception with framed artifacts and memorabilia recovered from Ground Zero. Russell met Artie and is using his time and talents to raise money to pay some of Artie’s medical expenses.  After 9/11 Artie worked a whole year on the forensics team sorting through the rubble left behind. His job was to watch for human remains and artifacts, airplane fragments and building fragments and sort them into piles. A symbolic amount of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center after it was destroyed in the September 11 attacks was used in the construction of The USS New York, an amphibious transport dock in the US Navy’s fleet.

“It’s often said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it and I want to make sure this part of our history is taught and remembered,” said Russell.