The United in Memory 9/11 Victims’ Memorial Quilt Exhibit will be on display from September 8-10 at the Staten Island campus of St. John’s University for the second year in a row.

St. John’s is the only stop that the quilt, a traveling memorial that honors each victim of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, will make in New York. “There is one block of quilt for every person who passed away,” said Dominic Scianna, the Director of Media Relations.

The Staten Island campus of St. John’s was chosen because there were “several people in Staten Island who died,” Scianna added.
The exhibit, which is presented by Where-To-Turn and the Joseph Maffeo Foundation, will be held in the University’s Student Center Gymnasium, located on 300 Howard Avenue.

The exhibit is free and open to the public on Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. and Monday from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Last year, more than 7,500 people visited the display.

“The response from last year’s showing of the 9/11 quilt was amazing and inspired us to continue on again this year,” said Joseph Sciame, Vice President for Community Relations, in a St. John’s press release. “Our goal is to reach out to more New Yorkers who have not seen the exhibit – for it truly is an emotional experience that will not be forgotten.”

Corey Gammel and Peter Marquez, from Long Beach, California, founded United in Memory, a non-profit organization, because they were in New York City at the time of the terrorist attacks. Gammel wanted to create a quilt similar to the famous AIDS quilt, according to the official United in Memory Web site.

After creating their Web site, Gammel and Marquez enlisted many people volunteer in helping to create the quilt. In fact, ,ore than 3,600 volunteers from the United States as well as 18 different countries contributed to the quilt.

The quilt, which is 16,000 square-feet, would stretch over a quarter-mile if its panels were aligned end to end. It took 11 months to complete.

In addition to the quilt, Where-To-Turn, a crisis relief network for victims of tragedy, will also host a Memorial Service and a showing of the Tower of Lights from Staten Island, part of a weekend of scheduled events.

“We must never forget the nearly 3,000 friends and family who were lost on that tragic day in September 2001. Events like this help us to remember and celebrate the lives of our loved ones,” said Dennis McKeon, Executive Director of Where-To-Turn. “It is the ongoing mission of Where-To-Turn and the Joseph Maffeo Foundation to make sure that we never forget and to make the world a better place in honor of those who were lost.”