Photo gallery by Samuel Robinson
There were many 9/11 remembrance ceremonies on Friday, which was the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the plane passengers overtook in Pennsylvania.
That day, the Arc of Allegany and Steuben, who had the state contract for DNA test kits, were asked to make 25,000 kits in 48 hours. They were capable of making 500. Dispatchers tond out for help and so many showed up, kits were also being assembled at the fire department on Main Street in Wellsville.
The only plane that flew that week landed at the Wellsville airport to pick up the DNA kits and take them to Ground Zero.
At a small but stirring ceremony at the PWI building of the Arc of Allegany and Steuben on Friday, speakers remembered how a community and Allegany County came together to make it happen. Here are speeches from Chris Koehler, the Deputy Executive Director for Business Operations for the Arc and John Anderson, a Wellsville Sun contributing editor and writer who covered the events that day.
CHRIS KOEHLER’S REMARKS:
It means a great deal to me to look around and see so many people who have gathered here at PWI to remember, to honor, and to reflect on a day 25 years ago that changed our country—and so many of our lives—forever.
Today, first and foremost, we remember the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
We remember the firefighters, police officers, EMTs and paramedics who ran toward danger when everyone else was trying to escape. The FDNY lost 343 members that day. Twenty-three NYPD officers and 37 Port Authority police officers also gave their lives at the World Trade Center, along with eight private-sector EMS EMTs and paramedics.
We remember the mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and friends who never came home.
And we remember the thousands of families who, 25 years later, still carry the loss of someone they loved.
I want to take you back for a moment to the morning of September 11, 2001.
It was a morning much like today.
It was warm. The sky was a brilliant September blue. It was one of those beautiful late-summer mornings when you would never imagine that, within hours, our country would be experiencing one of the darkest days in its history.
I remember that morning vividly.
I was on the telephone with our then CFO, Earl Johnson, discussing inventory.
During our conversation, Earl mentioned that he had heard that a small plane had struck the World Trade Center.
I remember shrugging it off as some kind of freak accident.
But about 15 minutes later, when the second tower was struck by a commercial airliner, everything changed.
I knew this was no accident. America was under attack.
I watched in horror as American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 9:37 that morning.
At 9:59, the South Tower collapsed.
Then, at 10:28, the North Tower collapsed.
I remember sitting there, numb, wondering what was going to happen next.
The next morning, the country still reeling in shock, I received a telephone call from Julie Pasquini at the New York State Division of Criminal Justice, Office of Forensic Services.
Julie was our primary contact in Albany for the DNA Databank convicted-offender specimen collection kits that we produced here at PWI.
Later that day, I participated in a telephone meeting with Julie, the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, and the New York City Police Department.
At that time, officials feared that as many as 25,000 people might have perished in the World Trade Center attacks.
There was an immediate and critical need for 25,000 DNA identification kits to help identify the remains of those who had died.
And we were asked to produce them in 48 hours.
Normally, a project of that size would have taken three or four weeks.
Now we had two days.
And there was another enormous challenge.
President Bush had shut down commercial air travel. Our normal overnight UPS Red service wasn’t available.
We needed 50,000 cotton swabs from Hardwood Products in Guilford, Maine.
Initially, we were told that it would take several days for the swabs to reach Wellsville.
This was setback – but then we received another phone call.
An employee of Hardwood Products had volunteered to drive the swabs to Wellsville himself.
The next morning, their Vice President of Marketing arrived here with the swabs. He had driven all night—and had even stopped in Albany along the way to donate blood.
It was the first of what I now think of as the many small miracles that happened during those 48 hours.
Our longtime printer and good friend, Brent Reynolds from Depot Press, ran his presses for approximately 18 hours straight trying to meet our printing needs.
When he realized, he was going to come up short, he reached out to Don Gates at the Alfred State College Document Center. Don and his team stepped in and helped complete the printing.
And then there was Tiffany McCaffery Horton.
Tiffany was our PWI sales and planning person at the time, and I want to make sure her contribution is remembered today.
Tiffany was absolutely incredible. She handled the logistics of getting materials to PWI. She made multiple trips to Buffalo to pick up supplies.
And perhaps most importantly, when things looked bleak, Tiffany never seemed to doubt that we were going to meet that 48-hour deadline.
She believed we were going to get it done. That attitude mattered. Her leadership, determination and drive mattered.
And Tiffany, I want you to know that when I think about the success of that unprecedented mission, I think of you. We could not have done it without you.
But even as the materials began arriving, another enormous challenge remained.
We had to assemble 25,000 kits.
By about 1 o’clock on Friday, September 14th, this building was filled with our PWI team and Arc staff from throughout the agency.
Family members came to help, including my wife and my children.
Everyone was working.
Everyone was doing whatever needed to be done.
But despite that incredible outpouring of help, we still had thousands of kits left to assemble.
And for the first time during those 48 hours, I began to have some doubts.
I should have known better.
That Saturday morning, long time PWI employee Annemarie Hennessy made a simple but incredibly important suggestion:
We should reach out to the Wellsville Fire Department.
The next thing I knew, the fire department had toned out for help.
And 156 volunteers showed up at the fire hall and went to work assembling DNA kits.
One of our team members was involved with the Wellsville First United Methodist Church and suggested that we ask them for help.
Once again, people responded. Another 60 volunteers soon joined the effort.
And as word spread throughout the Wellsville area about what we were trying to accomplish, people just kept showing up.
Local businesses donated food and drinks.
Texas Hot.
Beef Haus.
Pizza Hut.
Giant Food Mart.
And there were another 20 or 30 people who simply showed up at PWI and asked:
“How can we help?”
That is what I remember most.
People wanted to help.
And somehow, all of us came together around one mission.
Saturday evening, the kits were finally completed.
They were loaded into our PWI truck and escorted to the Wellsville Airport by the fire department.
The trucks were draped in red, white and blue.
The sirens were wailing.
And then came one of the most poignant moments of my entire career.
We stood together as the DNA kits were loaded onto then-Governor Pataki’s plane.
Nearly 50 firefighters assisted.
And for that moment, there was almost complete silence.
Twenty-five years later, I can still see it.
I can still feel it.
It remains the most memorable moment of my long career with the Arc.
Those kits went to New York City to become part of the enormous forensic effort to identify the victims of the World Trade Center attacks.
DNA samples from the closest available relatives of missing people could be used to create profiles that could then be compared with DNA obtained from recovered remains.
The goal was simple, but profoundly important:
To identify people who had been lost—and to give their families answers.
To give them the possibility of closure.
Twenty-five years later, that work continues.
The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner recently announced the identification of another World Trade Center victim, the 1,654th victim identified since 2001. For the first time, the identification was made through forensic investigative genetic genealogy, combining advanced DNA science with genealogical research. OCME says that 1,099 victims still remain unidentified.
Think about that.
But, twenty-five years later, science is still advancing.
Techniques that did not even exist in 2001 are now helping identify people who were lost that terrible day.
I find that truly inspiring.
Looking back 25 years later, I am incredibly proud of the role that PWI, the then Arc Allegany, NYSID, and so many people from the Wellsville community played during those extraordinary 48 hours.
Our DNA kits became a small but important part of one of the most complex forensic investigations in our nation’s history.
But honestly, that isn’t the part of this story that makes me most proud.
What makes me most proud is what happened right here in Wellsville.
It was the sense of unity.
The willingness of people to step forward.
The willingness of people to help someone they had never met.
The willingness of businesses, firefighters, churches, employees, families, volunteers and an entire community to come together around a common purpose.
Our story is remarkable because it shows what ordinary people can accomplish when they come together with an extraordinary sense of purpose.
We were fortunate during those 48 hours – we were fortunate to have a mission.
We were fortunate to have a way to help.
We were fortunate to have people who were willing to step up.
And we were fortunate to be part of a community that said, “We’re going to help.”
I was so proud of our organization.
I was so proud of our community.
And I was so proud of my country.
Twenty-five years later, we gather not only to remember those we lost, but to remember the people who responded with courage, compassion and determination.
To remember the volunteers.
To remember the families.
To remember the firefighters.
To remember the people who drove through the night with supplies.
To remember the people who asked how they could help.
And to remember that, in one of the darkest moments our country has ever experienced, people came together.
So today, on this 25th anniversary, let us remember.
Let us honor.
And let us give thanks.
Thank you all for being here.
Thank you for helping us remember this remarkable chapter in the history of PWI, the Arc Allegany, and the Wellsville community.
And thank you for making sure that, 25 years later, we continue to remember.
JOHN ANDERSON’S REMARKS:
AsI tried to phone family in Manhattan that morning, it was the first time I ever heard, “all circuits are busy” on a cell phone call.
Our newsroom at the Times Herald where I worked at the time, was getting information together and we literally stopped the presses and ripped apart the front page for a new one. After deadline, I went and picked up my kids. When I was home, I turned and looked behind me and saw my turnout gear from the fire department. My first thought was get in my car and get to Manhattan to help in the rubble, to help find people.
But then I realized why my turnout gear was in that bag, and why it was so clean. There are two types of people in the fire department, the first responders who will go into a building and save your life. And then there’s a second type. I am that type. I flip chickens. I can make a great pitcher of Bloody Mary’s. And a pretty darn good secretary.
So I stayed and did what I could do best. Get the information out to the public.
For those who don’t remember what it was like, the world shut down. But in a different way than the Covid epidemic. Every single radio station was playing 24 hour news with zero commercial interruptions. We were glued to the television and radio, we read every word in the newspapers and the world was quiet. There were no flights and there were no answers.
That’s when the well-documented call came into the Allegany Arc and this building. Somebody told the Governor about the state bid this facility earned because of the incredible employees. When they asked for 25,000 DNA kits, anyone else would’ve said “we can make 500.” Not the Arc, not this community. They said “hold my drink.”
Why is the Arc of Steuben and Allegany counties so special? The community members and firefighters, first responders and others all came together here and at the fire hall working shoulder-to-shoulder to get things done.
We have incredible individuals in our community who we describe as having developmental disabilities, But it’s their abilities to do things that brought worldwide attention to Wellsville. Their DNA kits were now needed more than ever. People from all walks of life made their way to the PWI building on Andover Road and work side-by-side with those people with incredible abilities.
Some of those who worked in the PWI building were also firefighters. Acceptance of others isn’t something we drive for, it’s something that just happens here. It doesn’t matter where you work or where you live, this community comes together as one during tragedies and during everyday life.
The only labels going forward from that day on were not on individuals, but stuck on DNA test kits.
As the work continued on the test kits, there were still no flights and no answers. Think about this for a second. An entire nation had no flights and no answers.
There was only one place in the ENTIRE world for one day that had a flight and had answers. Right here in Wellsville.
I can’t describe the emotions of seeing the only plane in the world landing at the Wellsville airport. I’ll never forget to look on the faces of the pilots who thought they were just doing a pick up when they saw the biggest display of firetrucks, ambulances and police cars with everyone in their Sunday Best, saluting these men.
The goal of 25,000 kits was reached and exceeded. No one complained about working. I wish I could properly tell you how it feels to be somber yet content at the same time. That’s what happened at that airport. Stone cold faces with a few tears, absolute silence other than the roar of an engine and the unremarkable sound of an American flag flapping in the wind.
Words matter. We remember words, we remember speeches. But I’ll always remember the silence. And I’ll always remember how one day, Wellsville took flight to give answers and closure during one of the darkest moments in history.
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