Community Corner

Weaving Memories of 9/11 Victims

Spring Lake teen's bracelet project recalls memory of NJ 9/11 victims

Spring Lake resident Meg O'Malley was only 7 years old when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, shook the nation to its core.

Ten years later, the 17-year-old senior at Red Bank Catholic has undertaken an initiative to help remember the victims of that tragic day.

With her Common Threads Project, O'Malley hopes to distribute 746 handmade bracelets — one for each New Jersey resident who lost their lives on Sept. 11. 

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Each bracelet comes with a card bearing the name and hometown of one of the victims and directs donors to www.nj911memorial.org, where they can read more about the victims.

Also included with the bracelet is a donation envelope. Bracelet recipients are encouraged to donate $2 to New Jersey's Empty Sky Memorial at Liberty State Park, which will be dedicated on Saturday, Sept. 10.

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"I just want every card to be distributed so every person is remembered," she said of the project's goal. "It's not about the money. It's the thought."

An experienced friendship bracelet braider, O'Malley was inspired to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the tragedy by something similar she did as a youth.

"I did a little project when I was, I guess 7, right when it happened," she said. "I made little yarn bracelets that were red, white and blue, and I just sold them kind of like a lemonade stand."

The few bracelets she made then are a far cry from the massive goal she has set for herself now.

"It takes a lot of time," she said of the braiding of hundreds of individually designed bracelet. "I've had people help me. My cousin has helped a lot."

Making matters worse, O'Malley and her family were displaced from their Spring Lake home due to extensive flooding damage during Hurricane Irene and have since relocated to a rental home in Sea Girt.

The move, along with the full schedule of a student-athlete working through the rigors of college applications, makes her success thus far that much more remarkable.

O'Malley says the response has been overwhelming.

"I have about 100 left," she said.

She has used a variety of outlets to help spread the word.

A Facebook page, the support of local media and businesses and word of mouth between family and friends have been vital to the success of the project.

While the feedback she has received has been universally positive, O'Malley was particularly touched when a woman who lost her husband on Sept. 11 reached out to her.

"She sent me an email and said that her family just appreciated so much that her husband was being remembered," she said.

O'Malley is a member of a generation who grew up in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Though she was only 7 years old, she remembers vividly the day the towers fell.

"I remember it was on a Tuesday and my CCD class had gotten canceled and I didn't know why. I didn't understand. And I remember when I walked into one of my classes my teacher was crying," O'Malley said. "We just didn't understand why she was crying.

"When I got out of school my mom was waiting for me and she was crying," she added, noting that her parents hoped to protect her from the graphic and disturbing images of the attacks that filled television screens. It wasn't until nearly a week afterwards that she happened to see an image from that day and began to understand the severity of what had happened.

"Every generation has big moments like that and this is really the one that affected everyone my age," she said. "Everyone knows someone that was affected."


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