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VALLEY — LaFayette Fire & EMS Chief Jim Doody talked to members of the Lions Club of Valley Monday evening about a very special event that will be taking place in east Alabama this September. 

The 9/11 Mobile Exhibit will be making its first stop in the state of Alabama, and it won’t be far from Chambers County. It has already been to 38 states, and people in the east Alabama region will be the first to see it when it arrives in Alabama on September 10th of this year. Plans are for the 83-foot-long exhibit to make a grand entrance into Opelika off I-85 for a four-day stop on the campus of Southern Union State Community College. There will be no admission charge to see it, and special efforts will be undertaken for school groups to see it.

Doody is a native of New York state and what happened on September 11th, 2001, deeply impacted him. Being involved in the preparations to have the mobile exhibit in this part of the state is gratifying for him. “I’m from New York,” he said. “9-11 was very personal to me. It was the kind of event that if you lived through it you will never forget where you were and who you were with when you first learned of it. I was with the Army in Kosovo when it happened. We were there in peacekeeping efforts in the Balkan War. I heard a plane had hit one of the twin towers in New York City.”

Doody then went to a room with a big-screen TV just as the second plane hit. One plane hitting the tower may have been an accident, but when a second plane hits the other tower, there’s no question it was a planned terrorist attack.

“When I saw the second plane hit, I thought I was watching a movie,” he said. “This can’t be real, I thought, but it was.”

Close to 3,000 Americans lost their lives that day, most of them in New York City. Others died at the Pentagon in Washington and in a plane crash in Pennsylvania.

A total of 343 members of the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) were among those killed. All of them died in the heroic effort to put out the fires. Others have died in the ensuing years due to 9/11 related illnesses.

The mobile exhibit pays tribute to those who lost their lives. The high-tech, 83-foot trailer travels the country and can transform into an 1,100-square-foot exhibit, serving as a tool to further educate people throughout the U.S. about the events of that tragic day. The name Tunnel to the Towers is in memory of one of the firefighters, Stephen Stiller, who lost his life that day. On September 11, 2001, he was with Brooklyn Squad 1. He had just finished his shift and was on his way to play golf with his brothers when he got word over his scanner of a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He called his wife Sally, asking her to tell his brothers he’d catch up to them later. He then went back to Squad 1 to get his gear. Stiller got back in his truck and drove to the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, but it had already been closed for security purposes. Determined to carry out his duty, Stiller strapped on 60 pounds of gear on his back and raced on foot through the tunnel to the Twin Towers to save the lives of others.

Stephen Stiller had much to live for that day, but he gave it all up in the effort to save others. He had a great wife, five wonderful kids, a devoted extended family and lots of friends. His parents were lay Franciscans and Stephen had been raised under the guiding philosophy of St. Francis of Assisi, who was known for the encouraging and inspirational phrase “While we have time, let us do good.” The Tunnel to the Towers Foundation embraces the legacy of Stephen’s life by doing good things in our time on earth.

Thus far, more than one billion dollars has been raised for such programs as providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and to build specially-adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. The organization is also committed to eradicating homelessness among veterans and helping America to never forget what happened on 9/11.

It was a major coup to get the traveling exhibit to East Alabama, especially with the visit falling on the 24th anniversary of 9/11.

Doody played a key role in getting it to East Alabama. He contacted the Foundation and asked for it to come to Alabama and helped raise $40,000 to cover the cost of getting it here.

Southern Union’s Opelika campus is an ideal location for it. The traveling museum will be set up along walking trails behind the main buildings. There’s ample parking to handle lots of visitors in the four days it will be here. It will set up on September 10th and will be there for the next four days. It will be open to the public from September 11-14.

“It is hard to get it on September 11th,” Doody said. “I am glad we will have it here. I would like as many people as possible to see it. I especially want school groups to see it. They didn’t live through 9/11 like many of us older people did. They need to learn about it. They also need to learn about September 12th and how united we were as a nation that day.”

Doody would like the trailer and its five-member crew to be routed through downtown Opelika and greeted by large, flag-waving crowds along the parade route.

“I encourage everyone to come and see this when it’s here,” he said. “It will be a chance to talk to people who were there on 9/11. This is going to be a big event, and we are trying to get the word out about it. The Auburn University History Department is on board with this. They will be a great help. Opelika and Lee County officials are excited about this. Mayor Gary Fuller was floored when we told him what was coming. They picked Opelika over the Florida Panthers. That was quite a feat. It will be especially nice to have it here in East Alabama on the 24th anniversary of 9/11.”

There’s still a lot of planning that needs to be done for the Tunnel to the Towers exhibit to go as well as it can. “People from throughout Lee County, Alexander City and Sylacauga and helping with it,” Doody said. “The people who will be traveling with it will be staying at Grand National. We have made arrangements for that.”

LaFayette is fortunate to have a man with Doody’s training and experience as its fire chief. He and his wife were living in the Florida panhandle when the LaFayette job came open. They have a daughter who is a nurse practitioner in Huntsville. They liked the opportunity of relocating to LaFayette, which is several hours closer to her.

In addition to his fire and EMS duties, Doody likes being involved in such projects as promoting the Chambers County Community Health and Wellness Center and getting involved in such projects as the possible renovation of the historic Martin Theater building and reopening the Chambers County Museum. Both are in downtown LaFayette and would make for interesting sites to visit. The theater was featured in the movie Mississippi Burning.

The Community Health and Wellness Center is located at 404 9th Avenue SW in LaFayette. It’s a cooperative effort between the city and Auburn University. It’s a great place to visit for health checks and all its services are free. You don’t have to leave Chambers County to go there.