AK Steel donations help fund 9/11 memorial

Rick McCrabb, Staff Writer The Middletown Journal

MIDDLETOWN — A short time after 9/11 10 years ago, AK Steel donated steel that made about 100,000 commemorative bracelets that raised funds for a memorial.

The Middletown-based steel company donated 10 tons of stainless steel — “the best money could buy,” one retired worker said — that were shipped to Butler, Pa., where it was melted, then finished in Rockport, Ind., said Alan H. McCoy, vice president, government and public relations.

Eventually the stainless steel was molded into bracelets, then stamped by Penn United Technologies. The bracelets were sold for $10, and McCoy believes they were sold out, generating $1 million for a memorial of the victims of those who perished when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Stoneycreek Twp., Pa.