Seedlings grown from a tree that survived being crushed in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center will be sent to the people of Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and Joplin, Missouri, to mark recent catastrophes in those places and – in the first international donation of offspring from the tree – to the people of Spain, it was announced on Saturday.
The resilient tree was dubbed the Survivor Tree after it was pulled severely damaged from the wreckage Ground Zero in New York when it was destroyed by hijacked jets flown into the buildings on September 11, 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.
The day after the 14th anniversary of the tragedy was marked in Lower Manhattan on Friday, leaders of the National September 11th Memorial and Museum that now occupies the site announced the recipients of the 2015 seedlings from the tree.
This year one tree will be presented to Sandy Hook, Connecticut, where a mass shooting at the elementary school in December 2012 claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults.
Another will also make its way to Joplin, Missouri, where 158 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in 2011 by the most devastating tornado to hit the region for decades.
And a third sapling is being given to the people of Spain’s capital Madrid to mark the deadly series of coordinated terrorist bombings of the city’s commuter train system in 2004 that killed 190 and wounded 1,800.
The practice began in 2013 to pick communities each year that have endured tragedy in recent times and dispatch seedlings nurtured from the commemorative tree to be planted and cared for there.
This is the first time that seedlings from the tree have been donated as an international gift – and the offering to Spain will actually be planted outside the Spanish embassy in Washington, DC.
The extraordinary tree is an ordinary example of an ornamental callery pear tree, which bursts out into white blossom every spring and is a common sight in New York and many cities, known for its tall, straight growth and hardiness.
“The Survivor Tree reminds us of our shared strength in the face of unimaginable tragedy. We hope these trees will serve as an inspiration to these communities and others who have suffered hardships and are working to recover,” said Joe Daniels, president of the 9/11 memorial.
There were numerous such pear trees around the World Trade Center site in 2001. But the tree in question was very close to the twin towers and was buried in the rubble when the towers collapsed.
Rescue workers and contractors clearing mountains of toxic debris known as “the pile” came across leaves protruding from the wreckage and pulled out the tree, which had suffered severe damage to its roots, branches and trunk.
It was thought to have almost no chance of survival, but was extracted and taken to a plant nursery in the Bronx, where it gradually sprouted fresh growth and was able to return to Lower Manhattan.
The tree now stands close to the 9/11 museum, the twin reflecting pools created as a memorial on the footprints of where the twin towers stood, and beneath One World Trade Center that is the flagship new skyscraper at the site.
Seedlings are cultivated from seeds produced by the tree by high-schoolers in Queens, overseen by experts. Trees have previously been donated to communities including the Far Rockaways in Queens to mark the destruction wreaked by Superstorm Sandy; Prescott, Arizona, to commemorate the 19 firefighters of the Granite Mountain Hotshots killed in a wildfire; and Boston, in honor of those killed and injured when the marathon was bombed in 2013.
And on September 10, the tree’s seedlings were donated to 28 fire houses spread across Long Island.
