WEST PALM BEACH | As the United States marked Patriot Day, which recalls the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the students at St. Ann School in West Palm Beach received a living history lesson from one of the people who assisted recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site in New York City.
Troy Cool, battalion chief and 26-year veteran of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Department, spoke Sept. 11, 2025, at the school’s annual 9/11 Memorial Ceremony. Students from preschool to eighth grade heard his inspiring and instructive presentation in collaboration with the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a nonprofit that offers services and resources to injured and homeless military veterans as well as fallen first responders and their families.
Father Quesnel Delvard, St. Ann’s pastor, welcomed the students, faculty, staff and parents to the ceremony, urging them “to remember those who have lost their lives and those who have sacrificed their lives for others. We want to remember them. We want them to be always remembered in our hearts as we ask for God’s blessing upon the families, their loved ones, ourselves and our nation.”
He read from the Gospel of Luke (6:27-32), where Jesus says, “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.” Father Delvard prayed, “Heavenly Father, we ask you to give us the grace to love the way you love, to love you above everything, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.”
Cool, who is the chief fire officer in the district that includes downtown Fort Lauderdale, said he was honored to enlighten the children and even some of the adults who weren’t yet born when terrorists attacked the United States 24 years ago. Recalling the stories of heroism and sacrifice that occurred in New York, Washington, D.C., and in rural Pennsylvania, Cool said, “It’s very important that those of us that do remember 9/11 continue to share the stories to teach and to talk about what happened on that day and on the days that followed, so that as a country we never forget.”
He, along with many other first responders, promised the families of the 343 firefighters who died in the World Trade Center collapse that they would keep alive the memory of those who perished. After 9/11, Cool went to New York to sift through the massive pile of rubble hoping to find survivors.
“For those of us who were there, I can assure you that we will never forget the sights, the smells, the smoke from the fires that were still burning, the dust that covered everyone and everything. How the beauty and majesty of the towers was turned into just giant mountains of ash and rubble,” he said.
Cool recounted the story of Stephen Siller, a 34-year-old New York firefighter who was off duty when he heard that an airplane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Instead of heading out to play golf, Siller turned his truck around and headed to the city to assist. “He was a firefighter. That’s what we do. When people are in danger, we respond, and we try to help,” Cool said.
Siller found the tunnel that normally would take him to the World Trade Center was closed to traffic, so he parked his truck, donned 50 pounds of firefighter gear and ran three miles through the tunnel to arrive at the towers. That run, from Tunnel to Towers, inspired Siller’s family to name their foundation for the selfless public servants who dropped everything to provide aid.
When he got to the disaster site, Siller ran up the burning buildings to save lives and extinguish the flames. That’s what he was doing when a tower collapsed, Cool said, killing him and his fellow first responders.
He said Siller had a wife and five children, so why did he and the others risk their lives to save others?
“Some may say it’s our job, and that is partially true. It is our duty,” Cool said. “However, the answer is much bigger than that, but it’s also very simple. It’s one word: love. They did it for love.
“There’s a Scripture in the Bible that really finishes this 9/11 story and explains why Stephen and his brothers of the FDNY gave their lives trying to save others. John 15:13 says, ‘There’s no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,’ and that’s what Stephen and the other firefighters did that day when they made what we call the supreme sacrifice.”
Also participating in the memorial ceremony were students Izabellah Michel, Kellen Bernier, Melody Le, Giovanni Leone, Aria Hogan, Boy Scouts George Demes and George Dabu, the fourth-grade choir and performance ensemble, and advanced band.
For more information about St. Ann School, visit www.stannwpb.org, call 561-832-3676, or connect through Facebook and Instagram. To learn more about the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, visit https://t2t.org.
