By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal education writer
GREEN: Skylar Schaefer will never forget the lush spring foliage and calm breeze drifting across a Pennsylvanian field, or the trembling voices of airline passengers who died there on Flight 93.
It happened on Sept. 11, 2001, in Shanksville, Pa., a year before Schaefer was born.
In May, she and 45 classmates from Green Middle School visited the field, where a visitor’s center opened Thursday to cap off a $26 million ongoing memorial project.
“They turned an empty field into a beautiful memorial,” said Schaefer, who purposefully left her name out of a lottery this month for a chance to visit the site again on Friday.
“I already went. I wanted someone else to go,” Schaefer said, rubbing her elbows as she recalled the poignant bus ride in May. “It’s just a part of American history. I still can imagine how people felt.”