On the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, it was clear that the Schuylkill County community of Palo Alto hasn’t forgotten.
A revitalized memorial honoring one of the borough’s native sons – Michael D. Ferugio – was unveiled to the public at a ceremony on Friday afternoon. The ceremony drew a crowd of nearly 200 people.
Steel recovered from the World Trade Center and a revamped memorial to Ferugio, who was working on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center South Tower when a jet smashed into the building, highlight the upgrades made. Ferugio was among the nearly 3,000 people killed in attacks that day.
Two large pieces of steel from the World Trade Center are welded to a beam behind Ferugio’s memorial, which has stood next to the Palo Alto War Memorial for two decades. Fastened to the beam is the world PALLY, also forged from WTC metal.
The steel was donated by President Frank Conti of the Port Authority NY/NJ Police Dept.’s Police Benevolent Association. Palo Alto’s 9/11 Memorial Committee also thanked NYPD Officer Steven Jerome for his help in securing those artifacts. It was constructed through a donation made by Operating Engineers Local 542.
Tunnel to Towers Foundation also donated steel from the World Trade Center. Those pieces sit atop two small towers that flank the Ferugio memorial.
“It’s beautiful,” said Gayle Sleva, of Bethlehem, Ferugio’s sister, who was in attendance at the rededication ceremony on Friday. “I have a lot of good memories about Michael. We all do. That’s how we keep going throughout the year, just thinking about things that he did.”
Sleva said that for family that lost someone on Sept. 11, “it’s still hard” to deal with 25 years later. It gets more difficult as each anniversary approaches.
“We struggle with it every day leading up to Sept. 11th. We don’t purposely seek it out but it’s in the news,” she said, adding that she appreciates that people still remember her brother and those who lost their lives that day.
Allen Buehner II, of Pottsville, is Ferugio’s nephew and was just a freshman in high school on 9/11. He attended Friday’s ceremony with other members of the Ferugio family to help remember his uncle.
Buehner echoed Sleva in thanking the community for remembering his uncle.
“It was a beautiful service and it’s a beautiful memorial,” he said. “It’s great to see all the people turn out.”
Though it’s been 25 years, he has the feeling so many people do who lived through that day in 2001.
“It’s very hard to believe that that much time has happened. It still feels like yesterday on this date. You still remember where you were,” he said.
25 Years Later, Palo Alto Never Forgot
Friday’s ceremony featured several guest speakers, including State Rep. Jamie Barton, who offered some distinct memories of Ferugio, including the first time he met him on the Penn State-Schuylkill campus back in 1982.
Barton remembered Ferugio – wearing his Pottsville Area High School class jacket – introducing himself enthusiastically when he walked on campus. He recalled the gap in his smile and him saying, “Hi, I’m Mike Ferugio!”
“I’m Jamie Barton … Take it easy,” he recalled fondly.
From that day, he and Ferugio became friends. Barton recalled playing a lot of basketball with Ferugio on Palo Alto’s Bacon St. courts and then visiting him after he’d moved to New York and seeing how he’d changed … but actually hadn’t.
“He’s still the same ‘Fud’,” he said. “New York never changed him.
“Mike really was somebody that changed the world. He changed people’s lives,” he said.
Retired Pottsville Area teacher John “JP” Powers also shared memories of Ferugio and the moment he got his last “Fud hug” following his speech at the school’s 1982 commencement ceremony.
Powers recalled the feeling he had when hearing the news that Ferugio was among those who passed in the attack on the World Trade Center and how it hit home for him and likely many others in Schuylkill County.
“It was not a they now,” he said. “It was one of us.”
Powers implored those in attendance to continue honoring Ferugio’s memory.
“Make a committment to be a better human. Share a hug with someone today. Time is precious. Don’t waste it,” he said. “Do it for Mike.”
Paige Jones, Ferugio’s great-niece, read a poem called “The Dash” which signifies the time spent between a person’s birth and death and how it was spent. Jones read the poem for Ferugio’s sister, Joan Marie Refugio Koslosky Buehner, who could not be in attendance.
Scott Guers, a Port Carbon native, also spoke at Friday’s ceremony. He recalled being inspired by the events of 9/11 and seeing New York Fire Dept. members rushing into danger that day. He eventually joined NYFD and Engine 205 in Brooklyn.
Guers currently serves with Ladder 31 in South Bronx. He said, “The obligation to remember remains.”
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