For the last year, Master Gardeners throughout Pennsylvania and Butler County have been growing flowers that would be given to families at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County.
13 Butler County Master Gardeners and eight plants were donated to the families and memorial in August.
Amber Mandic, a Butler Township resident who just became an official Master Gardener, donated flowers for the first-time this year.
She first thought she would just be volunteering her time to help prepare the site for the September 11 ceremony.
“I decided I have a couple of marigolds that I overplanted and I had some very robust plants in a single pot that needed a new home,” Mandic said.
What Mandic didn’t know was marigolds in Hispanic culture are seen as a “bridge between the living and ancestors through grief and happy memories.”
Once there Mandic volunteered her time helping pick weeds and other gardening work that was need to be done in preparation for today’s ceremony. After spending four hours at the memorial Mandic felt the powerful impact of the memorial.
“It makes it more real. I watched 9/11 on TV like many others and obviously it was real and there were real emotions at the time. But, to physically be at the location where the tragedy happened, it’s hard not to feel those emotions even more.”
The flowers featured in today’s ceremony are the same ones donated by Master Gardeners from across the state, Butler County, and Mandic.
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