WNYers remember local 9/11 victims

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The events of September 11th, 2001 day hit close to home. Western New Yorkers were among the thousands of victims lost in the terrorist attacks.

Tuesday morning at Amherst Memorial Hill Grove, Leonard Castrianno, Sr. read a poem called "We Remember Them."

"When we are lost and we are sick at heart...we remember them," he read.

Castrianno lost his son, Leonard Castrianno, Jr., in the World Trade Towers and will never forget that day. Before he had received any official word, he just had a feeling, and had already broken the bad news to his daughter about her twin brother.

"I walked around the block with her and I said Lee, Lenny did not survive, that he's dead, now don't ask me why I knew that, but i just knew that he had died," Castrianno said.

Karen Eckert read the names of the victims who have local ties, including her own brother-in-law, Sean Rooney.

At Ground Zero, local attorney Paul Walier was chosen in a sort of lottery system this year to read the names of the victims.

"And my sister, beautiful, loving, Margaret Walier Seeliger. God bless our family and God bless America," he said.

Walier and seven other family members were in New York City to see progress on the memorial.

"Really, really what strikes me is the grounds here. I'm standing here in a little park with grass and trees and the beautiful waterfalls with the names on it. Then as you look around, you see the Freedom Tower is a stone's throw away," he described. "So it really, really strikes me as different from the earlier years."

At St. Bonaventure University, the campus came together to remember the New York City Fire Department Chaplain. Father Mychal Judge was not only a pillar of spiritual strength at Ground Zero, his reach extended to the university where he received his bachelor's degree.

Father Judge had rushed to the scene that day and witnesses saw him administering last rites to those lying in the streets. He ran into the lobby of the north tower to pray and assist as best he could. He was killed by flying debris when the south tower collapsed.

And students from the Veteran Affairs Department at Erie Community College joined Buffalo firefighters at Fireman's Park in downtown Buffalo to mark the anniversary. Students presented a new flag to firefighters and everyone paused to remember the heroes and victims lost on that dark day.

ECC Veterans Coordinator Dan Frontera said, "To see that type of destruction, standing one block from Ground Zero, looking around. I had been there on top of the towers two weeks earlier on vacation and to see it now, wow that's crumpled fire equipment, what's left of that building."

Twin beams of light will shine into the sky near the footprints of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan Tuesday night. The tribute in light has happened every year since the attacks.