Students design 9/11 monument

KAYSVILLE — A monument designed by Davis County high and junior high school students will be built near the Utah House at the Utah Botanical Garden to honor the victims of 9/11.

Margaret Brough, Kaysville, is an adviser to the Youth of Promise, a group organized after Secretary of State Colin Powell asked Americans to give back to their communities. All junior high and senior high students in the county are eligible to join.

The monument as designed by the students, would cost up to $250,000 if paid for entirely with cash, but much of the material and labor is expected to be donated by contractors, Brough said. Grading on the site has been completed, and architects, who have significantly discounted their fees, are completing the final design.

Davis County commissioners have donated $500 to the project from their Davis Cup golf tournament proceeds, a charity event they sponsor each August to benefit the county's young people.

Right after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the members of Youth of Promise decided they wanted to build a monument to honor those who died that day, which included three Utahns. Brough is related to two of the victims, Mary Alice Wahlstrom and her daughter, Carolyn Beug, who both died on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center. She got involved with the students after they approached her daughter and son-in-law about doing something to memorialize her son-in-law's mother and sister.

The monument as proposed will have a pathway that begins with a pile of rubble and leads visitors to a large rock wall that signifies the strength of the nation coming together after the attack and to a waterfall and a reflecting pool.

Tiny fiber-optic lights will blink on and off for the nearly 3,000 people killed. Two stone pillars 5 feet high will have the names and small plaques with information on the three Utahns killed. Four Utahns killed so far in Iraq in the war on terror also will be noted.

Davis County students who would like to join the effort are invited to call Brough at 546-2787.

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E-mail: lweist@desnews.com