‘They’ll tell their story’: Traveling Sept. 11 exhibit led by firefighters who were there comes to Arlington Heights

Contained within an 83-foot tractor-trailer, a traveling museum of artifacts from ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001 regularly makes stops at state fairgrounds, community picnics and festivals throughout the country.

But more often than not — like Monday and Tuesday at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights — the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s 9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit comes to schools.

“Their favorite place to go is always schools. Remember these kids weren’t born yet,” said Jim Miks, a longtime Hersey English teacher, coach and veterans’ advocate who is helping organize the upcoming exhibit visit. “The biggest part of their mission is to make sure that (people) never forget. They want to talk to kids more than they want to talk to anybody else.”

“They” are the retired FDNY (New York City Fire Department) firefighters who were there on Sept. 11 and serve as volunteer docents. Making the trip to Arlington Heights will be George Campbell, a battalion chief who retired last year after 38 years in the fire service; Thomas Delgrosso, a captain who spent 27 years with the department and now helps build houses for disabled veterans; and Michael Barbarino, a firefighter who responded to both World Trade Center attacks in 1993 and 2001.

“They’ll tell their story,” Miks said. “It’s from their perspective.”

The mobile museum truck will arrive in Arlington Heights around 1 p.m. Sunday and be escorted by police and fire department vehicles from the Jane Addams Tollway and Arlington Heights Road north to Hersey, 1900 E. Thomas St.

Fellow English teacher and coach Wally Brownley and his baseball team will help unload the contents and transform an area near the baseball field into a 1,100-square-foot museum space.

At 9 a.m. Monday, an opening ceremony will kick off student tours that will take place during the school day Monday and Tuesday.

The museum will be open to the public from 4 to 7 p.m. both days.

Among the artifacts and exhibit pieces inside: World Trade Center steel beams, aluminum facade, pieces of the marble lobby floor, items recovered from the rubble after the towers collapsed, recordings of dispatch radio transmissions, videos, and tributes to first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Miks thanked the many organizations who donated and helped raise funds to bring the exhibit to Arlington Heights, including Arlington Heights American Legion Post 208, Arlington Heights Firefighters Association Local 3105, and a group of parents led by Julie Cohen, a Hersey instructional assistant and alumna.

“Enabling Hersey and the greater community to honor our everyday heroes, and remembering that living a life of service in the United States is an incredible privilege, are two important messages that cannot be overcommunicated,” Cohen said. “The museum visit is especially purposeful to educate the youth who were not alive to witness the humble and selfless acts of so many 9/11 heroes.”

Since launching in 2013, the mobile museum has visited 39 states and Canada, and been seen by more than 650,000 people.