Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and National September 11 Memorial & Museum President Joseph Daniels today signed one of the steel beams to be used in the construction of the Memorial and invited the public to do the same. The public will have an opportunity to sign the steel beams today and tomorrow in Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, and to write "Notes of Hope" messages to be preserved within the Memorial Museum. Last year, the beams were sent around the country to 25 cities in 25 states, where tens of thousands of people signed their names and shared their thoughts and reflections on September 11th. Joining the Mayor at the opening event were VOICES of September 11 Founding Director Mary Fetchet, who lost her son Brad Fetchet on September 11th, 2001; E.E. Cruz WTC Site Safety Manager Brian Cichetti, who helped in the clean-up of the World Trade Center site in the aftermath of the attacks, and is now working on the construction of the Memorial & Museum; recently retired FDNY Lieutenant Mickey Kross, who was trapped in the North Tower as it collapsed on September 11, 2001 and survived; and students from Millennium High School and the High School for Leadership and Public Service in Lower Manhattan.

"Last week, the first steel beams of the Memorial & Museum were installed, and hundreds more, including those signed today and tomorrow, will soon be put in place, as the structure of this important building begins to take shape," said Mayor Bloomberg, who serves as Chairman of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. "Signing the steel beam offers all of us an opportunity to be a part of the physical structure that will help us pay tribute to those we lost, remember the past and look towards the future."

"Thanks to the tens of thousands of people who have shown their support, the Memorial & Museum is being made possible," said Memorial & Museum President Joe Daniels. "We have seen true national participation in the building of the September 11 Memorial & Museum. As the tour made its way through 25 states last year, tens of thousands of Americans joined us in support of our country's tribute. We hope that people in the New York area will join us this September and leave their mark on the Memorial."

Steel beam-signing events will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, September 10th and 11th from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM at the north side of Battery Park at Battery Place between Greenwich Street and Washington Street in Manhattan. There will also be a steel beam-signing event on Sunday, September 14 outside Gate D at Giants Stadium from 2:00 PM through the end of the first quarter of the New York Jets opening home game, which begins at 4:15 PM. Last week, the steel beams were available for signing at Giants Stadium at the New York Giants opening home game.

At the signing events, visitors will also have an opportunity to write "Notes of Hope" cards, which will be archived within the Memorial & Museum. The "Notes of Hope" range from written tributes to personal stories of where people were when the attacks occurred and reflect the tremendous impact September 11th had on people across around the country and the importance of building a Memorial & Museum that will preserve this shared history. Visitors will also be able to preview plans for the Memorial & Museum currently under construction at the World Trade Center site.

"Although seven years have passed since the attacks, our responsibility to memorialize what happened does not lessen," said VOICES of September 11 Founding Director Mary Fetchet Fetchet. "It is my hope that the Memorial & Museum will help future generations understand the unthinkable horror that too many innocent people suffered on September 11, 2001 and find inspiration in the many stories of courage and compassion."

"It's a great honor to be involved in building the Memorial after working at this site during the rescue and recovery effort," said E.E. Cruz WTC Site Safety Manager Brian Cichetti. "I am proud to do play a role in preserving the memory of the nearly 3,000 people that were lost here on September 11, 2001."

The steel beams, which are approximately 37 feet in length, and weigh close to four tons, were manufactured by South Carolina-based Owen Steel Company and are part of the structural steel for the Memorial & Museum. In May 2007, the Memorial & Museum selected Owen Steel to supply, fabricate, and erect the steel for the project.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the not-for-profit corporation created to realize the Memorial quadrant at the World Trade Center site. The organization is responsible for raising the funds and overseeing the design for the project and will program and operate the Memorial & Museum located on 8 of the 16 acres of the site.

The Memorial will remember and honor the nearly three thousand people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993, and September 11, 2001. The design, created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker, consists of two pools that reside in the footprints of the original Twin Towers, surrounded by a plaza of oak trees. The Arad/Walker design was selected from a design competition that included more than 5,000 entrants from 63 nations.

The Museum will display monumental artifacts associated with the events of September 11, while presenting intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning and recovery that are central to telling the story of September 11 and its aftermath. It will communicate key messages that embrace both the specificity and the universal implications of the events of 9/11; document the impact of those events on individual lives, as well as on local, national, and international communities; and explore the continuing significance of these events for our global community.

In April 2008, the Memorial & Museum announced reaching its initial $350 million fundraising goal for the construction and operation of the Memorial & Museum, with more than 80,000 individuals contributing from all 50 states and 31 countries. An additional $25 million fundraising goal has now been set to support Museum programming and the start of an endowment. Donations can be made through and more information can be found at the Memorial & Museum's website, www.national911memorial.org, or by calling 1-877-WTC-GIVE.