By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
Saturday is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Memorials to those who died that day can be found at eight airports in Kansas thanks to the work of two Hoisington artists.
Brothers Bruce and Brent Bitter created the artwork. They are the owners of B&B Metal Arts in Hoisington. Bruce explained how they got involved with the project.
"Ten years ago, we received a phone call from Homeland Security’s TSA that they had a piece of the World Trade Center I-beam,” Bruce remembered. “They were looking for a Kansas artist to put that into an artistic view for the Kansas airports.”
The brothers were given an 8-foot-long section of the World Trade Center I-beam. The largest sculpture was dedicated at Wichita’s airport in September of 2011.
"We did our best to put an eagle above it with its claws gripping the I-beam and carrying that away with the background of the American flag with nine stars and eleven stripes with the Twin Towers behind it,” Bruce said. “And then we put an uplifting pedestal in it to display it.”
The nine stars and eleven stripes represent the number 9/11.
Seven replicas that were one-fourth the size of the Wichita artwork were created and placed at seven smaller airports in Kansas, including the Great Bend Airport. The artworks are identical except for the eagle. Bruce says the eagle is posed differently on each sculpture so that each airport has a unique piece.
Airports in Liberal, Hays, Salina, Manhattan, Dodge City and Garden City also received the historic artwork.