9/11 Bracelet

On September 11th, 2001, we were unpacking boxes in our new home in Providence. Mourning the friends we’d lost that day, I came across a POW bracelet I’d worn to commemorate captured soldiers during the Vietnam War. I felt called to reintroduce this symbolic gesture in honor of the first responders lost on 9/11, and worked with the firefighting unions and the families of the first responders to secure their permissions to be included in our project by listing each individual name and rank on a copper cuff. I secured permission from Federated Department Stores to carry the 9.11 bracelets to raise money for the union’s Widow and Children’s Fund worked and worked with nytimes.com to share stories of those honored. On a lark, my best friend reached out to team organizing the Salt Lake City Olympics that winter. We were blown away to see the bracelets worn by American athletes in the opening ceremonies. Many of the athletes came home to pay the respects to the individual firefighter whose name they had carried at the games. Long before Lance Armstrong made a yellow band to tribute cancer survivorship, this bracelet became a pledge to never forget.