By Cheryl Conway
September 11 will always be a somber day of remembrance, especially at Tinc Elementary School in Flanders.
Twenty-five years after Flight 93 fell from the sky on Sept. 11, 2001, the Tinc Road school community gathered Friday at 8:45 a.m. to remember one of its own — longtime paraprofessional Hilda Marcin. In her memory, the school rededicated the memorial gazebo built in her honor.
The 25th Anniversary Memorial Event was held in front of the school with hundreds in attendance for the re-inauguration of her memorial gazebo.
Tin Road School Principal Mark Grilo describes Marcin as “a former beloved paraprofessional who worked here at Tinc Road school and who was one of the brave souls who we lost on Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. “Our own hero from flight 93, who we lost on 9/11.”
Located right in front of the main entrance at Tinc Road school, the Memorial Gazebo was first built in 2011, in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the passing of Marcin and those lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
On th
e morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Mrs. Marcin had been retired from Tinc Road School for just three months when she boarded United Airlines Flight 93 at Newark International Airport. She was traveling to Danville, Calif., where she planned to live with her daughter, Carol O’Hare, and son-in-law, Tom, during the winter months.
Shortly after takeoff, the flight was hijacked by terrorists. As the passengers and crew learned of
the hijacking and the plane’s believed target in Washington, D.C., several attempted to regain control of the aircraft. Flight 93 ultimately crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa.
Marcin, 79, and the other 39 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 93 died that morning.
In her honor, the memorial was built 10 years later with money donated by the community.
With the 25-year anniversary approaching, Tinc Road leaders knew they wanted to host a special tribute of their beloved employee.
“We have been planning this renovation and memorial for over a year,” shares Grilo.
“Our entire school community and Dr. Bangia and district leadership attended the ceremony,” says Grilo, totaling 475 people.
Marcin was from Mt. Olive and worked as a bookkeeper and teacher’s aide at Tinc.
After emigrating with her parents from Germany when she was 6 years old, Marcin, settled in Irvington. She married Edward Marcin in 1943 and had two daughters. Marcin worked for 20 years as a fund manager for a waiters’ and waitresses’ union in Newark. After moving to Mt. Olive, Hilda began a new career as an instructional aid for special needs children at Tinc Road School. The energetic grandmother, widowed in 1979, loved to cook and entertain and is remembered as strong, independent and organized. Marcin was the oldest passenger on Flight 93.
Grilo led the 15-minute ceremony, which included a welcome address and a remembrance of 9/11 and Marcin.
Students and staff wore red, white and blue, with younger students holding flags while students in grades two through five sang “God Bless America.”
Grade-level representatives also placed flowers at Marcin’s memorial inside the gazebo, with the song led by choral music teacher Jessica Pomeroy.
“The day was not over and the fight was not lost,
For terrorists had vowed to strike D.C. at all cost.
The heroes of Flight 93 formed a plan,
In the Pennsylvania skies they took one final stand.”~ excerpt from Lt. Dan Marcou’s poem “That Day in September.”
