LEBANON — A piece of a girder from one of the Twin Towers of the Word Trade Center that was destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001 was the focal point of Sunday’s ground breaking of Warren County’s 9/11 Memorial.

More than 300 people, many of them families with young children, attended the ceremony, at the Warren County Government Campus in Lebanon.

Police, fire and other public safety departments came together to remember those who were lost during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Springboro police Chief Jeffrey Kruithoff read a proclamation of the combined fire and law enforcement associations of Ohio honoring the acts of bravery of the public safety defenders at Ground Zero.

Kruithoff called on Warren County’s public safety forces to “recommit their lives to the supreme calling of protecting our citizens.”

Loveland-Symmes Fire Battalion Chief William Goldfeder, spoke about the calling of firefighting.

“Death is a very personal thing. Each of us deals with it in our own way,” he said. “The one common denominator among us is giving. Day and night you’re always a firefighter.”

The ground breaking ceremony presented an artist’s rendition of the proposed Warren County 9/11 Memorial to be built near the Warren County Sheriff’s Office on Justice Drive.

Warren County Chief Deputy John Newsom, Tim Klink of Turtlecreek Twp. Fire Department, Commissioner Tom Ariss, Tim Bliss of the Warren County Foundation and Lynn Faulkner, widower of Wendy Faulkner, broke ground with five golden shovels, to symbolize the beginning of the project.

As a special tribute the Lebanon High School National Honor Society released symbolic, white and blue balloons, one balloon for each fallen fire fighter and police officer killed at the Twin Towers and a bundle of white balloons for Wendy Faulkner, the Mason wife and mother also killed in the disaster.

As lone Warren County Sheriff’s bag piper played “Amazing Grace,” those in attendance stood in solemn silence, unwilling to leave.

Many families pulled out cameras and began taking pictures of their children in front of the piece of steel girder. Others quietly visited with the many members of the county’s public safety forces attending the ceremony.

Mark Duvelius, who was a member of the Clearcreek Township polices in 2001 and in now an investigator with the Warren County Prosecutor’s office, said,” “I wouldn’t be any place else but here today.

“None of us knew what to expect after we heard the news that morning and we were particularly concerned about the Texas Eastern site in Clearcreek Twp.,” he said. “We all pulled together throughout the county and made sure we had extra people at key sites. We took care of business.”

Larry and Julie Stone of Lebanon talked about Julie’s experience as part of the disaster medical team deployed from Ohio to support the mortuary operation at Ground Zero.

“We were there about two weeks after the event and we were taken to Ground Zero so we who worked in the mortuary could get a sense of the situation,” she said. “To be able to do anything to help was an honor.”

Donations can be made at any LCNB branch or mailed to Warren County

9/11 Memorial, P.O. Box 1315, Lebanon, OH 45036-1315. Support the memorial on Facebook at Warren County 9/11Memorial.