News Release: 2022 Survivor Tree Seedlings

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, September 12, 2022

9/11 SURVIVOR TREE SEEDLINGS INSPIRE RESILIENCE
Seedlings Are Donated to Ukraine and Communities in Buffalo, NY & Miami-Dade County, FL

(New York) September 12, 2022 – Today, The National September 11 Memorial & Museum announced that Ukraine and communities in Buffalo, New York, and Miami-Dade County, Florida, will be recognized for their resilience in the face of adversity as this year’s recipients of “Survivor Tree” seedlings. Each chosen recipient represents the resilience and spirit of the Survivor Tree: having endured devastating events, each group was able to heal over time. In the years to come, each seedling will be a reminder of a period of strength and perseverance, just as the original Survivor Tree does at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, and in other communities around the world who have previously received Survivor Tree seedlings.

Ukraine is being honored for the thousands of Ukrainian casualties resulting from the ongoing unprovoked war that began on February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded the country. This invasion has caused Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, with more than six million Ukrainians fleeing the country. Ukraine estimates they have suffered at least 12,000 civilian casualties, along with several thousand injured.

The community of Buffalo, New York, is being honored for its demonstrated strength following the mass shooting on May 14, 2022. In an act of domestic terrorism, an 18-year-old, wearing military gear and livestreaming, killed 10 people, and wounded three, at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo.

The community of Miami-Dade County, Florida, will be the third recipient, honored for its perseverance after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South on June 24, 2021, that killed 98 people. The 12-story residential building partially collapsed around 1:15 a.m. ET in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about six miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex's 136 units were destroyed. The rest of the building was demolished due to concerns about its structural integrity and an incoming tropical storm.

The Survivor Tree has become a symbol of the nation’s spirit of hope and healing as well as strength and resilience in the wake of the 2001 attacks. The tree received its name after it was pulled, scorched and with limbs broken, from World Trade Center rubble and nursed back to health. It was later replanted at the 9/11 Memorial where it continues to thrive today.

“Twenty-one years later, the Survivor Tree remains stronger than ever at the heart of the 9/11 Memorial, and its seedlings continue to inspire unity, resiliency, and hope around the world,” said Alice M. Greenwald, President & CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. “May these seedlings endure through the seasons ahead and blossom, their renewal each season offering tribute to those who were so senselessly killed in Ukraine, Buffalo, and Miami-Dade County, and reminding these communities of their own capacity for resilience in the face of adversity and loss. Together, we remain committed to our shared mission to never forget.”

In September 2013, the Memorial began the tree seedling distribution program in partnership with Stamford, Connecticut-based Bartlett Tree Experts and John Bowne High School in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. Bartlett, which donates its resources to support the program, harvested seeds from the Survivor Tree in the fall of 2011. John Bowne High School cares for the seedlings as part of the school’s agriculture curriculum.

Images of the Survivor Tree and seedlings associated with the program can be provided upon request. Please email press@911memorial.org to request access. Learn more about the Survivor Tree and the seedling program here.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is the nonprofit organization that oversees operations for the 9/11 Memorial and 9/11 Memorial Museum. Located on eight of the 16 acres of the World Trade Center site, the Memorial and Museum remember and honor the 2,983 people who were killed in the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, and February 26, 1993. The Memorial plaza design consists of two reflecting pools formed in the footprints of the original Twin Towers surrounded by swamp white oak trees. The Museum displays more than 900 personal and monumental objects while its collection includes more than 60,000 items that convey intimate stories of loss, compassion, reckoning, and recovery linked to the events of 9/11 and the aftermath. The Museum also explores the global impact of 9/11 and its continuing significance through education programs, public programs, live talks, and film features that cover contemporary topics designed for diverse audiences. For more information or to reserve a ticket to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, please visit 911memorial.org.

MEDIA INQUIRIES
Lee Cochran/Grant Kinsaul
(212) 312-8787
press@911memorial.org
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