Personal Donations Drive WTC Memorial Ahead

Plans for a World Trade Center memorial continue to crawl along, and WNBC has a story today about the personal donations that are funding the effort and the memorial itself. $300 million has been raised to build a set of reflecting pools and a museum at Ground Zero, much of that money coming from a fundraising drive over the last six months. The story includes a list of top donors, and we found it interesting that most of the individuals listed are New York-area politicians. Mayor Bloomberg donated $15 million. NJ Governor Jon Corzine donated $2 million. Governor Spitzer and his family chipped in $2 million as well. Donors in the under $100,000 category include former NY Governor Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Friday marked the end of excavation of Ground Zero for human remains. It was the latest of multiple concerted searches of the area and turned up the remains of an additional 646 victims. While the large-dollar donations of some definitely added up, Joe Daniels of the WTC Memorial Foundation was thankful for the 31,000 donors who gave $5 or $10. One can donate to the eventual memorial here.

(pov-spire-chrome-metal-viewed-from-slurry-wall, by bmccsf at flickr)