Annual Report 2003

World Trade Center Memorial Breakfast

On November 21, 2002, the New York Building Foundation hosted a World Trade Center Memorial Breakfast and presented crystal memorial plaques to the 26 design and construction organizations that lost employees or members on September 11, 2001.

A total of 166 men and women employed in the building trades, engineering, architecture and other building disciplines were lost in the tragic attack on America and New York City. The largest losses were sustained by 17 unions, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and Washington Group International.

The Building Foundation designed and produced a separate crystal memorial plaque for each of the companies, agencies and unions involved. Each memorial was inscribed with the names of the employees/ members who perished from that organization. The memorials, displayed prior to the breakfast, were officially presented to each organization during the morning’s program. Family members, some of whom were present at the event, were given printed replicas of the appropriate memorial as a keepsake.

At the event, Richard T. Anderson, President of the New York Building Foundation and the New York Building Congress, opened the program by saying, “This industry has always been known for generosity and civic involvement, but I have never seen it contribute so much so willingly than in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Building Foundation’s World Trade Center Memorial Fund is truly a labor of love that is funneling not just money but support for the larger building community from all sectors throughout the Country and the world.”

John F. Hennessy III, Chairman of the New York Building Foundation, introduced each of the organizations that received memorials saying, “These unions, companies and agencies experienced very personal losses on September 11 that have changed them forever. In many ways it has made them, and all of us in the industry, more determined to do whatever we can to help the City not only recover but grow in prominence and strength. The losses our colleagues have suffered have served to unify our industry and spur us all to greater accomplishments than we could have imagined prior to the tragedy.”