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CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. –Fundraising efforts remain slow for the Buchanan-Cortlandt-Croton 9/11 Memorial, "Reaching through the Shadows." The foundation received its nonprofit status quickly but has raised only 10 percent of the projected necessary funds to build the memorial.
“We’re hoping to get in-kind services,” said Janet Mainiero, about donations of labor and time from contractors and landscapers. She said the foundation is also hoping that large corporations will donate. “I’m going to make a personal appeal and we’re hoping that will generate something.”
The cost of the memorial is estimated at $190,000. Despite having raised about 8.4 percent of the estimated necessary funds to build the memorial at Croton Landing, Mainiero remains hopeful that it will be completed by next Sept. 11.
The memorial will include a cast bronze statue of a woman reaching toward the memorial steel. The memorial will double as a giant sundial and will overlook the Hudson River. The foundation also hopes to include a meditation garden beside the memorial.
The large footing necessary to put the memorial near the Hudson River’s soft soil, the uncommonly large size of the steel, and the casting of the bronze statue all add to the cost.
Requesting donations from large corporations has its own challenges, said Mainiero, as many have donating policies that don’t allow donations to memorials or statues.
“We’re bumping up against that,” said Mainiero.
The foundation's largest fundraiser, a wine tasting at Monteverde at Old Stone in Cortlandt, brought in more than $8,000. This, combined with a plethora of other local fundraisers, has raised about $16,000 in total.
If the fundraising remains slow, Mainiero said the foundation could choose to reevaluate the design of the memorial after the first quarter of 2012.
“People are starting to put this away,” she said about the disastrous events of Sept. 11. “Which is why it’s urgent.”
She also said the Buchanan-Cortlandt-Croton 9/11 Memorial is more complex than most, partly complicated by the size of the 14-foot, one ton piece of steel.
“Most of theirs are very simple, and not as many are elaborate as ours,” she said.
Mainiero said the next fundraising approach will be to put the memorial steel in public view, in the Continental Village Fire Department in the Town of Cortlandt.
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