Twenty-five years after carrying a not-yet-two-year-old girl through smoke and debris in Lower Manhattan, former preschool teacher Lynn Boris received a granite keepsake at her Upper St. Clair home this week — a replica of a cobblestone now dedicated to her at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City. The stone was a gift from the family of Erica, the child Boris rescued, who is now grown and living in New York City.
Boris taught at Trinity Preschool, part of Trinity Church and located near the World Trade Center, when the first plane hit the North Tower on September 11, 2001, according to WTAE. As the attacks unfolded, Boris and other teachers sheltered with children and parents before leaving Lower Manhattan. Boris carried Erica through smoke and debris, and the two eventually reunited with Erica's mother, Debra.
A Permanent Marker at Ground Zero
The cobblestone dedicated to Boris reads, “in honor of Lynn Boris, forever grateful to our hero,” as reported by WTAE. Erica's family gave Boris a granite replica for her home. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum says its “Never Forget” cobblestone program allows donors to dedicate stones on the Memorial plaza and receive a limited-edition granite keepsake. Sponsorship levels range from $125 for plaza pathway cobblestones to $2,500 for pavers along the Memorial Glade, with proceeds supporting site operations and educational programs, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Maintaining the eight-acre plaza and its underground museum has required substantial funding. Annual upkeep was estimated at roughly $60 million in a 2012 report from the Liberty Champion. The plaza centers on two reflecting pools, each covering nearly an acre within the footprints of the original Twin Towers, and is surrounded by 400 swamp white oak trees and what Wikipedia describes as North America's largest man-made waterfalls.
How Lower Manhattan Has Changed
The tribute is part of a broader story of recovery and change in the neighborhood. According to the Office of the New York State Comptroller, Lower Manhattan has developed a more diversified business community, expanded tourism and transportation investments, and become a 24-hour neighborhood with more than twice as many housing units and residents as in 2000. That transformation included federally funded recovery work. A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General audit reported that New York designated the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to administer $2.783 billion in federal disaster-recovery funds for the area's recovery and revitalization after the attacks.
A Decade of Local Coverage
Boris's story is not new to WTAE viewers. Evening anchor Mike Clark, who reported this year's update, previously produced a 2016 television special titled “15 Years After 9/11: Lynn Boris” with producers Andy Benesh and Shawn Quinlan — a piece that was named a finalist at the 2017 Golden Quill Awards, according to a PR Newswire release from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. The 25th-anniversary follow-up extends what has become a decade-long editorial relationship between the station and Boris, who now lives in Upper St. Clair Township, a South Hills suburb about 11 miles south of Pittsburgh with a population of 21,160 as of the 2020 census, per Wikipedia.
Boris told WTAE that the memories of September 11 still feel like yesterday, and that she felt humbled by the recognition from Erica's family. She said she believes divine intervention guided her and Erica through the smoke that morning, and that healing involves both remembering and reflecting on the day while still moving forward. She hopes, she said, that nobody ever forgets.
Passing the Story to the Next Generation
Boris has brought her own sons, Nicholas and Ryan, to Trinity Church and the reflecting pools, and in 2024 she visited Lower Manhattan for the first time since the attacks. Her son Ryan said he feels lucky to have her as his mother, and that he hopes people remember that compassion comes first. Erica, now grown, calls Boris her family's hero, as noted by WTAE.
Trinity Church's role in the neighborhood extends well beyond the preschool where Boris worked. On the day of the attacks, church leaders including Rev. Canon James Callaway helped coordinate the evacuation of children amid collapsing debris, according to Trinity Church Wall Street. Nearby, the church's St. Paul's Chapel survived undamaged and operated for nine months as a round-the-clock respite center, serving more than 500,000 meals to Ground Zero rescue workers, as Hoodline previously reported.
Why the Story Still Matters
This year's official Ground Zero ceremony marked the 25th anniversary with an added, seventh moment of silence, honoring survivors and emergency workers who died in the years since from 9/11-related illnesses — a addition to the traditional six moments tied to the flight impacts and tower collapses, according to PBS. That expanded remembrance comes as roughly 100 million Americans — nearly 30 percent of the population — were born after the attacks, according to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, driving the institution's push toward educational outreach aimed at younger generations who have no living memory of that day. Stories like Boris's, of an ordinary teacher who acted before help arrived, are part of how that history gets carried forward.
