Photos and Article By Max Oppen
HUNTER – A steady breeze moved through the 25th 9/11 Memorial service in the Village of Hunter last Friday. Clouds drifted
across the sky, casting shadows over the mountains. When the sun emerged, the shadows of the two steel beams from
the Twin Towers starkly reflected the severity of the day. New to this year’s service were 153 students from the Hunter-Tannersville Central School District. Last year, just 10 students attended.
District Superintendent Dr. Vincent Butera said, “My brother was among the first firefighters into the North Tower. Thankfully, he made it home - but sadly, many that day did not. This memorial matters because the sacrifice and bravery of so many deserve to be remembered. When Jim Jones called and asked whether students could attend, it became clear that all our students needed to experience the significance of that day, so we made plans to ensure our entire secondary school community was invited. These significant moments in history must never be forgotten.”
HTC Middle/High School Principal Ismael “Ish” Villafane said, “We have 153 students here. After this, we will have our community service day working with the fire department washing their trucks and helping wash business windows in Hunter and Tannersville.
This is great – none of these kids and some of the teachers were even born. They hear about [9/11] and study this at school, and today they’ll hear from some of those who were there that day and make a connection.” That connection came through guest speaker Ram Singal, who was working in the North Tower that fateful day. Singal said, “I was working on the 54th floor as a project manager, and I was writing an email. All of a sudden I heard a big bang and the Tower started to shake.” Singal said he first thought it was an earthquake. “Then everything stood still,” Singal noted. He and his coworkers then thought a small plane had hit a Tower due to a medical emergency. Singal said. "hey didn’t know what to do. “Then we started to go down the stairs.” As they were walking down the stairs, the South Tower was hit. That was when, Singal said, reality hit them. “Now we knew it was an attack,” Singal said. “We thought it was the beginning of World War 3."
Singal said the staircase ended up being blocked by debris, so they had to make their way to another staircase. As they were heading down the second staircase, fast-moving water from the pipelines began to flow so heavily that it consumed some of his colleagues down the stairs. “We had to hold onto the staircase railing to stay safe,” he said. Singal said they were again directed to find another way down due to debris. “To get to the third staircase, we had to walk through total darkness in ankle-deep water. We also had to duck to avoid hanging wires.” Singal said they made it out, and about 5 minutes later, they felt the ground shaking. Singal and his coworkers looked back to see the North Tower collapsing. “We were so close to the tower that if the tower had toppled in our direction, we would have been underneath it.”
As the North Tower began to fall, Singal said they started running. He said all of their clothes were covered in ash. Singal is now an integral figure with Peace Village in Haines Falls. He said 25 years ago during the escape, people gravitated toward him because of his demeanor, and they knew he was into meditation. He then brought people to a meditation center on 5th Ave. “I offered them food and water until the trains started to run.” Singal said the events of that day caused him to have a revelation of sorts. He said, “Today I will forgive myself for all of the wrong things I have done. I felt so light, as if a burden had been taken off my shoulders.”
Jim Jones, Commander of the American Legion Bunt-Brewer Post 165, said, “Today was a day of remembrance. As 25 years have passed, we needed the community’s support. The school graciously brought middle and high school students down.” Jones says