Maranda Chapin Stohr, D.P.T.’19, ATC, was in the second grade when initial news of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC, came over the intercom. Nearly 20 years later, she gained a personal connection to those tragedies and an act of remembrance that occurred as a result.
In 2018, as Dr. Stohr began her final year in DMU’s doctor of physical therapy program, she was awarded the Sandra Teague Memorial Scholarship. The award is named to honor the memory of Sandra Teague, a 1998 graduate of the program who was on American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists crashed it into the Pentagon, killing everyone on board. Ms. Teague was on her way to a dream adventure in Australia. After the tragedy, the physical therapy program, the P.T. Class of 1998 and members of the Teague family established the scholarship.
“I was shocked and flattered to receive the scholarship,” says Dr. Stohr, a physical therapist with Taylor Physical Therapy in Nashua and Waverly, IA. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to have had a family member who died on 9/11.”
In August, Dr. Stohr and her husband, Chase, visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, located at the site of the World Trade Center in New York. The museum offers an immersive experience in the story of the 9/11 attacks as well as the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the events’ aftermath and the people who experienced them.
“The museum is breathtaking. It takes you through the entire day, what the world was seeing and the government’s response,” Dr. Stohr says. “It was really emotional for me to go through the museum and think about Sandra Teague being on one of the planes and all that she was experiencing.”
The museum features walls and walls of photos of all the victims of the attacks, telling their stories and the events that occurred before, during and after the attacks through interactive technology, personal narratives, historical records and both monumental and intimate artifacts. Virgil’s quotation on one wall, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time,” underscores one of the memorial’s missions – to always remember the individuals who lost their lives in the attacks.
Outside the museum are two memorial pools with borders that are inscribed with the victims’ names. Dr. Stohr describes coming out of the museum and “almost walking right up to Sandra Teague’s name,” with the other Flight 77 victims, on the South Memorial Pool.
“They did such a great job in designing the memorial. I felt that every person was so honored,” she adds.
