Children look at emergency vehicles on display at a 9/11 exhibit on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025, in Spanish Fork.
Though many still remember the day vividly, the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred more than two decades ago, before all children and many young adults were alive.
The Major Brent Taylor Foundation is determined to keep the memory of the tragic day alive with the 9/11 Project: Utah County Remembers, which started Wednesday and runs through Saturday at the Spanish Fork Fairgrounds.
The event has an interactive exhibit chronicling the events of 9/11, a resource center detailing its aftermath and a “touch-a-truck” area where first responder vehicles are displayed.
On Wednesday, hundreds of elementary students were invited to experience it all.
“The biggest reason that we do this 9/11 remembrance event is because we want to give these students who have never experienced going through 9/11 the opportunity to remember and to be able to learn a little bit more about what our country has gone through and what all of their parents and their grandparents remember about that day,” project manager Kiersten Wilcox said.
There’s a heavy feeling inside the exhibit room, Wilcox said, as people are exposed to the sights and sounds of the planes hitting the buildings and emergency personnel responding on the radio.
The resource center represents Sept. 12 and how people rallied together after the attacks. Red Cross and United Way are stationed there, along with three men who share their firsthand experiences of 9/11: Hector Soto, a former New York Transit Authority worker; Steve Casquarelli, a former firefighter who identified bodies at Ground Zero; and Scott Zink, a retired New York Police Department sergeant who responded to 9/11 calls.
“Scott actually has a piece of one of the planes at his booth here today,” Wilcox said. “Both Hector and Scott are local to Utah. Steve flies in from New York every year to help us out.”
The third section, the first responder vehicles, gives kids an opportunity to thank emergency personal for their service and potentially inspire the next generation of heroes, Wilcox said.
Wilcox said the country had pledged to never forget 9/11, and that the foundation is doing its part.
“As the generations go on, it will be talked about less because the teachers will be the younger generation and not know how to explain 9/11, because they weren’t there and they don’t have the stories, and then things will get lost,” she said. “And we don’t want that to happen. It’s so important to continually remember.”
