Mobile Sept. 11 memorial exhibit stops at Washington County Fair

A truck-pulled Sept. 11 memorial exhibit made an entrance at the Washington County Fair Saturday, escorted by dozens of emergency service vehicles and tailed by more than a hundred motorcyclists.

Washington County Fair Association Board member Amanda Russell said the exhibit, owned by the Steven Stiller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, was a powerful reminder of the tragedy, staffed for its Washington stop by four retired New York firefighters who responded the day of the attack.

One such former firefighter, Jon Bukner, said he was happy to bring the service to far away communities.

“For me and a lot of guys I talk to, on 9/11 so many people came to help us, so many people,” Bukner said. “The whole country gave us so much, and a lot of our initiative comes from that. Just to give back, give back to the people that took care of us.”

Foundation member and 9/11 first responder Tom Petty said he made a habit of participating in the exhibit’s trips to Iowa communities.

“I haven’t been any place except Iowa, outside of New York, with the exhibit,” he said. “I specifically look for Iowa stops because of people like this. It’s very heartening to see people who were so far removed from what happened on Sept. 11 show as much respect and honor to the people who sacrificed so much that day.”

Exhibit driver Bill Puckett, who has transported the attraction for six years, said he was inspired by the people he met through the program.

“I’m probably getting close to over 200 stops,” Puckett said. “I have met guys who joined the military and came back missing limbs. And when you talk to them and you really dig down deep, every one of them said they’d go back and do it again even though they knew the outcome. That’s extraordinary.”

While the exhibit recalls an especially a bad day in their lives, the retired firefighters said their service with Tunnel to Towers drew positive effects from a terrible situation.

Foundation member and 9/11 first responder Pete Wright said the foundation spent 92% of its revenue helping those wounded or killed in the line of duty. The organization builds homes to accommodate wounded veterans, pays off mortgages and college funds for families of firefighters and police officers that were killed, and sends aid to communities effected by natural disasters.

“I try to tell kids that out of something that bad, there comes some good,” Wright said. “Like the Stiller Foundation, building all these homes for all these people. There’s always human nature, the good will always come out.”