A rendering of the National 9/11 Memorial.
Officials at the 9/11 memorial preview site were stunned when they opened one of the donation boxes Tuesday night and instead of the usual pile of change and crumpled singles, they found $10,000 in crisp bills clearly left by a single person.
“I was home watching the Yankee game when I got a call from the preview center’s manager. She asked me if I was sitting down,” recalled Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
“We just found $10,000 in the donation box,” Daniels was told.
Daniels said officials have no idea who left the pile of 99 100-dollar bills and five 20s, or why they did it without any recognition — or even a receipt that could be used for a tax deduction.
The bills, which hadn’t even been folded before they were slipped through a thin slot in the top of the box, appeared to have been recently withdrawn from the bank.
Anonymous donations to the memorial aren’t unusual, but while those donors’ names are kept from the public, they are known to the foundation. Some have been as large as seven figures, but those donors usually write checks, Daniels said.
Roughly 3,000 people a day visit the preview center at 20 Vesey St., where they get to see plans for the memorial and rebuilt World Trade Center, alongside a selection of artifacts from 9/11. A shop sells souvenirs to raise money for the memorial.
“I think it’s great because it shows that people are supporting our nation,” said site visitor Kyle Miller, 23, of Bangor, Pa. “And whoever gave it isn’t looking for anything in return.”
The $10,000 windfall isn’t anywhere near a record-breaker for the memorial fund-raising effort, which has amassed $370 million so far for construction and future operation of the plaza and the museum below.
But the donation — cash with no one taking credit — is unprecedented. Gifts to the memorial have ranged from $25 million from corporate donors to jars of pennies raised by schoolkids.
Memorial officials believe the donation was made sometime between 5 p.m., when the box was last checked, and 7 p.m. when the preview site closed — and could have been from any of hundreds of visitors during those hours.
The 12-by-12-inch Plexiglas donation box hangs on a wall beside racks of literature explaining various fundraising efforts. The box is wrapped with a blue liner, which made it difficult to see what was inside until a dime-store padlock was opened.
Once discovered, the money was counted and taken by the preview site’s manager, Suzy Brown, and a security official to a bank. All the bills were checked and authenticated and then deposited in the memorial account.
Memorial officials have looked at surveillance tapes, but have no way of knowing who dropped the cash in the box.
“We’d love to know who it was so we can say thank you,” Daniels said.