Remembering 9/11: WVC Memorial Garden

West Valley College President Lori Gaskin and some 10,000 students will reflect upon the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Friday and this weekend by visiting the 9/11 Memorial Garden in the center of campus.

A formal ceremony "honoring the impact" of 9/11 will take place Tuesday, 2:15-3:30 p.m., at the college's Fox Center, Room 120, 14000 Fruitvale Ave., in Saratoga, featuring Zahra Billoo, a member of the Council for American Islamic Relations, and Karen Wallace, the college chaplain.

The small grounds were built soon after the terror attacks on the World Trace Center in New York City and the Pentagon. It honors two of its former students, Nicole Miller and Mark Bingham, who were killed when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, PA.

Enveloped by blooming flowers and trees, the garden represents a perpetual sanctuary in memory of Miller and Bingham, according to Gaskin. It's located where several pathways inside the college converge, next to Vasona Creek. The garden contains two benches and a stone memorial plaque that pays tribute to the two.

Bigham graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1988, and Miller attended the college at the time of her death. She was returning home on 9/11 from a trip to New York City. 

Miller was born March 4, 1980, in San Jose. She attended local schools and graduated from Pioneer High School in 1998. She was on the championship varsity swimming/diving team in her freshman and sophomore years. She played softball all four years of high school, winning a softball college scholarship in her senior year. After high school, she continued to be an athlete who loved to work out, hike, play softball, ride horses and jog, according to her memorial website.

On the dean's list at West Valley College in Saratoga, while working her way through college, Miller, who was 21 when she died, was finishing her last eight units and had planned to to continue her education.

Bingham was a public relations executive who had founded his own company, the Bingham Group. He was 31 on 9/11. He had graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and played rugby for the school, winning a string of national championships. He was going home to see his mom, Alice Hoagland, who lived in Saratoga at the time of the attacks.

Those aboard Flight 93 are considered heroes, as many believed they thwarted the terrorists' plans to use the plane as a weapon against the White House or the U.S. Capitol.

Gaskin has asked students, faculty and staff to reflect upon the work they do daily to "foster connectedness, to advance the underpinnings of knowledge and understanding, to enlarge the lens through which we view the world, and to cultivate goodwill, respect and tolerance.

"This is what education is all about," she said. "This is what you do. Education empowers, enlightens and enriches all our lives, and by engaging in this most important endeavor, we stave off divisiveness and instead nurture and build upon all that connects us to one another."

Each year, as close to the 9/11 date as possible, West Valley College has had a ceremony at the memorial garden to remember and reflect on the events of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash, said Brenda Rogers, executive assistant to Gaskin.

"Our college had many people that were affected by the attack," said Rogers, "and their reactions and emotions were extremely personal and varied widely, yet the event had the effect of binding us together as one huge community in our grief, vulnerability and disbelief."