Diocesan native has hand in memorial for 9/11 victims
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Millions of people were touched by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, but one native of the Albany Diocese has an unusual connection. Tara Snow, a former parishioner of Holy Spirit parish in East Greenbush, is among those planning the 9/11 memorial in New York City.
Ms. Snow has been working for Gov. George Pataki since 1994. After 9/11, she transferred from an office in Albany to become vice-president for government relations and community affairs at the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. in New York City.
Her office has a threefold mission: planning the memorial, rebuilding at Ground Zero and revitalizing lower Manhattan.
Joined in grief
Her grief over another loss in 2001 drew her to the job.
"I had a personal loss in November," she explained. "I lost my father. In many ways, I'm grieving right along with the families [of 9/11 victims] -- and I knew people at the World Trade Center that died. I felt this was my calling."
One of her tasks is to conduct outreach to victims' families, learning about what they would like to see in a memorial and helping to create advisory committees to represent various groups in planning it.
Making friends
While she is still gathering preliminary information, Ms. Snow has moved forward in another way: Some of the families she's met have become her friends. She often gets together with them for dinner.
"I've met some wonderful people that I'll be friends with for the rest of my life," she told The Evangelist.
Since the relatives often speak of their lost loved ones, "even though I didn't know the victims, I feel like I did."
Ground Zero
Ms. Snow noted that her job, while "a tremendous honor," isn't always easy. Every day, she commutes to work in lower Manhattan, to an office overlooking Ground Zero.
"Some days are very difficult," she said. "But we have to remember and rebuild, so the people that live and work down here can have a better quality of life."
As for the 9/11 memorial, Ms. Snow said, the public's opinions are being assembled, and a mission statement should be created soon. The competition for the memorial's design is set for September 2003.
Ms. Snow is reserving judgment on what she thinks the memorial should look like.
"2,997 lives were lost that day," she said of 9/11. "I would like [the memorial] to be a place where people 100 years from now can remember what happened that awful day."
(For more information, see www.renewnyc.org.)