The memorial is modeled after a willow tree, and stands 8 ft tall. Pantoja roughly used 13,000 toothpicks, with some paper and rocks also included in the construction. The leaves of the sculpture are made out of paper and each one has written on it the name of a person who died in the 9/11 attacks. There are a total of 2,983 paper leaves, blue for police, red for firefighters, and white for others. This sculpture, as a memorial for that tragedy, is heavy with symbolism. The form of the tree is used as a symbol for the connectivity all people share, the rocks out of which the tree grows at the base of the sculpture represent the rubble that remained in the wake of the attack, and the "trunk" of the tree is structured to resemble a tower. The cascading branches are lined with paper leaf shapes that move slightly as one walks closely around them. This subtle movement gives a somber and living quality to the memorial. What truly makes it a stirring tribute, though, are the names, which are the most powerful remainders of the real human beings who lived and died. At the opening on Saturday, October 22, Pastor Robert Meyer of the Wurtsboro Community Chuch gave a convoction in honor of those who died Sept. 11. He notes that through the medium of the leaves on the sculptured willow tree, the number of lives lost on 9/11 becomes visible, and not just a vague statistic. He further remarked that the tree " is a tribute to the connection all people have with each other . . .each leaf touches, in a sense, all the other leaves." The form of a tree is a common motif in Pantoja's work. "Trees, especially old trees, have a sense that they have a story to tell," he says. " I sometimes wonder about what kind of things a tree have been through." Also, his working process is an organic one. Often his projects change direction and theme as he works through them. The shape of the tree lends itself to this kind of unpredictability, as does using toothpicks as a building material. When asked how he got inspired to create sculptures out of toothpicks, Pantoja said that in high school he had been grounded for a summer for trying to skip too much school. Out of boredom, he began experimenting with toothpicks and found them to be a suprisingly good material for self expression. To this day, toothpicks remain his preferred medium for sculpting. The results are unique and though-provoking.