Collin College unveils World Trade Center memorial honoring 9/11 first responders

Gus Cabarcas remembers exactly where he was when the planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001. He also remembers what it was like at ground zero, the chaotic and devastating site of the attack.
“You literally had to watch your step, because everything was still on fire,” said Cabarcas, a retired New York Police Department sergeant who now lives in McKinney. He spoke at an event at Collin College Tuesday honoring those who died in the terrorist attack on 9/11.
“It looked like a nuclear bomb went off,” Cabarcas, 57, said about ground zero.
On Tuesday, Cabarcas and administrators and students of Collin College Law Enforcement and Fire Science Academy gathered to unveil a memorial honoring the fallen first responders and others who died in the terrorist attack that killed nearly 3,000 people.
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The 6-foot-tall memorial shows a 16-by-16-inch piece of steel from the World Trade Center that Cabarcas helped the school obtain. The memorial also shows a pre-2001 New York City skyline, including the twin towers. The wood behind the steel is meant to represent life, according to Danny Jackson, an artist and designer who helped build the memorial.
Jackson described the memorial as “heavy in so many ways. … It’s emotional. 9/11 was a heavy, emotional day for everybody. Building a piece that itself is heavy made all the sense to me.”
The memorial is displayed at the school’s Public Safety Training Center in McKinney.
“This memorial stands as a reminder that, even in our darkest hours, we have heroes willing to give their all to help others,” Collin College District President Neil Matkin said in a statement. “I am proud that Collin College can help spread that message through this memorial and our faculty’s work in training the next generation of first responders.”
Scott Donaldson, director of the Collin College Law Enforcement Academy, wrote a proposal for the piece of metal from the twin towers, and obtained it with Cabarcas’ help. New York Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro gifted the college the piece of steel.
Donaldson said the law enforcement academy’s large reach to different agencies, as well as the school’s police and fire training, made the center a good candidate to host and display the piece of the tower.
Donaldson said the school trains people from local agencies across the region. The academy has served over 50 local agencies since opening in 2018, he said, and enrolls around 32 students in each class.
The fire academy trains four classes of around 24 students a year, Pat McAuliff, director of the Collin College Fire Science Academy, said.
McAuliff said he remembers how the country came together after the attacks. It was hard to buy an American flag in the weeks following the attack, he said, because demand was so high.
“So many of our students weren’t even born when this event happened,” McAuliff said. “We tend to forget things if we don’t have constant reminders. … I think it shows our students, as public servants … the kind of level of commitment we’re talking about when they go out and make a call.”
More than 300 first responders died responding to the attack, according to the National Fire Protection Association. Thousands have since been diagnosed with illnesses related to their response on 9/11, such as cancer and asthma, according to the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Andrew Bowen started his training in the fire academy three weeks ago. The paramedic, who was born in December 2001, hopes to continue the legacy of service of the first responders who died that day and in the attack’s aftermath.
“It has an impact on us as first responders, just to really step up and try to fill those shoes of the ones who died on 9/11,” Bowen said.