(KMOX) — Every single day the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at ground zero in New York City encourages visitors to leave small tributes such as photos, notes, flags, flowers or special items in honor of the people who died in the 9/11 terrorist attack. But what happens to all that stuff?
It's collected and a lot of it is kept by the museum to be reviewed and documented. A report from the
New York Times explained why they do this.
"We had made the decision from the get-go that this site would be cleaned every night so that every time a visitor stepped onto it, they could experience it fresh," said Jan Ramirez, the museum’s chief curator told the Times. "We knew those trinkets had to go somewhere, so we wanted to build in the opportunity to collect them respectfully."
Here's what the Times reports happens every night at the memorial:
Tributes are collected each night by maintenance crews. Food and flowers are thrown away, as are beer cans and liquor bottles. Everything else is saved, taken to a secure area below the museum and placed in a metal cabinet next to a lab. Most end up in boxes that are stored at facilities in Jersey City and Rotterdam, N.Y.
Some, however, are cataloged and added to the official museum collection. Those tend to be tributes for victims for whom there is little information. A unique or unusual item can also make the cut, like the yellow helmet worn for three decades by a retired firefighter from the United Kingdom and the note left by Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, on a rainy December day “in admiration of the courage shown to rebuild."
There are a few reoccurring items, such as red bandannas left for Welles Crowther who helped people escape while wearing a handkerchief as a mask and tiny stuffed bumblebees are left for Betty "Bee" Ong, the American Airlines flight attendant who was celebrated as a national hero for the phone call she made before Flight 11 went down.
More than 300 items have even been added to the museum’s permanent collection, according to a blog post on the Memorial's website.
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