Buffalo deputy mayor rides 9/11 tribute Harley to Fort Erie

While remembering that fateful day 25 years ago when planes struck the Twin Towers in New York, Fort Erie gathered to commemorate 9/11.

“Today is very similar to September the 11th, 2001. It was a sunny day. Bright blue skies,” said Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop.

Residents joined emergency services from both sides of the Canada-U.S. border. All gathered at Mather Arch, a structure built in 1939 to symbolize the peace between both nations. Alonzo Mather, an American, donated the piece of property and provided funding toward the build.

Speakers for Friday’s 25th anniversary commemoration shared sentiments of strong ties between Canada and the U.S., the heroics of individuals who put their lives on the line to save others and remembrance among personal accounts from that day.

Eugenio Russi, deputy mayor of Buffalo, N.Y., was among the speakers. He recalled how his brother-in-law’s brother Bobby died in Tower 2. His brother-in-law Joseph ended up a half-block away from the towers beneath a park bench.

Russi helped in the search for both of them on the 11th and 12th. While Joseph survived, Bobby was never found.

A parole officer at the time, Russi was mobilized to do security at the World Trade Center. For that, he received a Ground Zero Rescue and Recovery Medal from the Fire Department of New York, which he epoxied to the console of motorcycle that belonged to his brother-in-law before it was passed to him.

Russi rode that Harley-Davidson across the border to Fort Erie Friday.

“I looked a little crazy coming over the bridge in a suit riding a motorcycle,” he said. “But I thought that bike needed to be here with all of you to share in this moment and share in our friendship.”

The motorcycle’s console also features the 343 names of the American firefighters who were killed on 9/11.

Of the nearly 3,000 individuals who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks, two dozen were Canadians. Their names were read by Christopher Smith, Fort Erie’s deputy fire chief.

“Gathering here today is fulfilling a promise made to all those affected,” Smith said. “A promise that we will never forget them.”

Redekop called the attacks on the World Trade Center a defining moment in the history of the world.

“Nothing has been the same since that day.”

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