The MEMO Blog

Before the age of 30, Jennifer Louise Fialko learned to speak fluent Spanish and Portuguese, lived in Spain, graduated from the University of New Hampshire and had overcome a battle with Hodgkin’s Disease. On Aug. 6, 2001, the 29-year-old started a new job in the World Trade Center’s South Tower with AON Insurance Corporation. She was at work on the 92nd floor on the morning of 9/11.

Within hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, thousands of rescue workers from across America deployed to ground zero to help in the search and rescue efforts. Joining the endeavor were dogs specially trained in search and rescue, police work, therapy and comfort. It is estimated that more than 300 dogs took part in the search, rescue and recovery efforts at ground zero.

The emotional effects of sports are multi-pronged. They course through every society and country, and can be unifying, particularly in times of crisis and upheaval. As ESPN staff writer Tommy Tomlinson observed, “This is the blessing of sports. They help you remember when you want to remember, and they help you forget when you need to forget. They heal us an inning at a time, quarter after quarter, play by play.”

A year following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Joseph Pellegrini, vice president of business operations for The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), received a Brink’s U.S Global Services envelope recovered from Ground Zero. In 2001, the OCC used Brink’s to send correspondence back and forth between the company’s headquarters in Chicago and its New York office at 17 State Street.

Today we pay tribute to John Vigiano Sr., a retired FDNY captain whose two sons followed him into service and were killed on 9/11. John Vigiano Sr. died this weekend after a battle with cancer.

Last week, the 9/11 Memorial Museum opened its new special exhibition “Comeback Season: Sports After 9/11” to the public. “Comeback Season” has received local and national media coverage to mark its opening.

Lindsay Stapleton Morehouse, remembered by family and friends as academically and athletically gifted, worked as an equity research analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods on the 89th floor of the South Tower. At 24 years old, she had lived in Manhattan for only five months before her death at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Tuesday, July 3, marks the first installment of Stories & Art, a new program for young visitors to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

The Lens: Capturing Life and Events at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum is a photography series devoted to documenting moments big and small that unfold at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

Each year, the 9/11 Memorial Museum rotates the objects on display in its In Memoriam gallery. The objects on view once belonged to, or were created in memory of, the victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993.