Tips to Get Started with YOUR September 11th Story:

Take a moment and read through the tips and stories below.  All are being shared as an inspiration to you.

1. Think About YOUR Story:

Where were you when you heard about the attacks? 
What emotions did you feel? 

Answers to these questions are YOUR story.

2. Read Stories from MPI Employees:

We Forget How Blessed We Are!

I don’t remember how I first heard one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane.  My first impression was that some idiot in a small plane had somehow gotten off course and hit one of the towers.  I was horrified to find out it was a full sized jet with many passengers on board.  Still, it was an accident, wasn’t it?

We were watching when the second plane deliberately flew into the second tower.  Time froze.  Everything seemed to go into slow motion.  Firemen went in to try and hold the fires and to help people get down the many flights of stairs and out of the building. Unbelieving, we watched people jump out of the windows, rather than face burning alive.  The Pentagon was hit!  We listened as the third plane was brought down in a Pennsylvania field by heroic passengers.  What was it like to know you were going to die?  We were told how structurally sound the Twin Towers were. . . and then one pancaked – all that cement and steel sandwiching the remaining thousands of people, workers, firefighters, policemen inside and anywhere near the towers.  Americans, brothers and sisters, were gone!  Horror – what we were watching was real, not a fictional movie!  So much grief and sadness.  The other tower collapsed! Images of ash and smoke and then images of people walking out of New York, covered in ash.  How could they breathe?  It was hard to fit the reality of those in the towers with my own reality of comfort and safety at work.  I didn’t know anyone personally in New York, yet that day the people there were relatives, friends, brothers and sisters.  There is no way to put into words the numbness and shock and total sense of unreality experienced.

How could this happen?  How could we be under attack?  How could our brothers and sisters in New York be dead, displaced and covered in ash, facing this terror?  There was the overwhelming feeling that life as we know it was about to change.  The things you take for granted were now at risk and foremost in your mind.  A lot of attitudes changed that day.  We could no longer forget how blessed we’ve been, and it was amazing how almost everyone found common ground and wanted to work together.  People forgot their differences.  The only concern was for America and for Americans that had fallen.

~Love and Prayers to Future Generations, Jane~

A Day I Will Never Forget

September 11, 2001 is definitely a day that I will remember for the rest of my life. My husband and I owned a construction company so I was able to stay home with our then 3 year old daughter and run the office out of our house. Our 5 year old was in Kindergarten and my husband was working. So it was me and our 3 year old at home that day. I’m not quite sure how the channel even got turned off of Barney or Dora the Explorer but we were watching the news when it all began.

I remember feeling confused at first because no one really knew what was happening. There was speculation that a pilot had lost control of his airplane. It didn’t take long for them to figure out what was happening and I remember crying in front of the TV set and hugging my daughter. As time went on and other planes were found to be hijacked I considered picking up my 5 year old from school because no one knew how bad it was going to get. There were also the endless cell phone calls to my husband to relay the information to him at the job site.  Once we were all home together for the day I think my husband and I were just shocked and a little fearful. It was difficult to comprehend what had just happened to our nation. We both felt that we had lived our whole lives thinking that the USA was invincible.

I felt the unity of the country as American flags could be seen in nearly every yard, on every building and house. There was also anger, why did someone do this to us. How could they hate innocent people so much?  And remorse for the all of the families who lost so much that day. Neither of my daughters really remembers the 911 attacks. Only through learning about it at school and seeing it on TV now as teenagers. The attacks changed me forever because I now know that is possible for terrorists to “get us” and we are vulnerable.

Hopefully as approach the 10 year anniversary of this tragic event, all Americans will realize how lucky we are to live in this wonderful country and remember the unity that happened out of tragedy. God Bless America!

~Dedicated to My Daughters, Love Mom~

September 11th In My Own Words

I'll never forget sitting in a meeting at work and someone coming into the conference room to ask if  we knew what was going on. We all hurried to the cafeteria and stood there just staring at the TV screens as the twin towers collapsed and then images of the Pentagon flashed across the screen. As all of us stood there we were numb, as if frozen in time wondering what in the world was going on.  As the day wore on, the numbness turned to anger mixed with sadness. My mind could not comprehend the devastation that so many families were feeling as they waited to hear if their loved one had died due to the attacks. And my mind was beyond comprehension of how anyone could plan such a brutal attack.
 
No one in my family was injured in the attack, but it still had a lasting impact on my family. It was in seeing the devastation and feeling the anger at what happened that my brother signed up for the Army. At 27 he was much older than the average new recruit but he felt compelled to do whatever he could in order to help our country.  He joined within a month of the attack and served in active duty in Iraq. I'll never forget his first furlough home while on active duty. It was the 4th of July and we went to see fireworks. We had to leave because the sound of the fireworks was too much like the bomb shelling that he was used to dealing with every day. The biggest change is that he came home from active duty a different person. He is quick to anger and holds in him scenes of things that he won't talk about. The little bit that he's mentioned includes images of children carrying guns and the fact that you knew at any moment you might have to shoot and kill a child in order to save your own life.
 
I still cannot comprehend the devastation or the rationale that caused the attack on 9/11. I also cannot comprehend the horror that our military personnel see every day they are serving on active duty. And because I realize that I truly do not comprehend, I'm so grateful for what our military does day in and day out to protect the rest of us!

~In Honor of My Brother Shawn~

3. Preserve & Publish YOUR Story:

Through Coins of America's online Story Builder, you can create a striking 5"x7" tri-fold that displays YOUR story in the center panel.

Included in the display is a summary of the events of 9/11 as well as the unity seen in our nation on the ensuing days.

Also included with this item is a beautiful challenge coin rich in symbolism and strength.