Reported by Mark Jenkins  News 13

WINDERMERE -- A 15-year-old Eagle Scout candidate has caused quite a commotion with his one-of-a-kind tribute to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

More than eight years and 1,100 miles removed from Ground Zero, the new monument was dedicated Saturday outside Windermere City Hall.

The display’s centerpiece is a 650-pound steel beam, taken directly from the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York.

The memorial is the vision of Jeff Cox, a high school sophomore, who started it as his Eagle Scout service project.

“I just thought it would mean so much to so many different people,” Jeff told News 13. “My brother is an injured firefighter, so I can understand. There’s 343 firefighters and 60 policemen who died during Sept. 11. It just means so much to firefighters and policemen, and so many different people.”

“I said, ‘How does a kid your age end up with a piece of the World Trade Center?’  It just blew me away,” said Sally Trant, whose brother died in the attacks.

Jeff said his project quickly took on a life of its own. His fellow Boy Scouts pitched in, creating 90 tiles to surround the beam, with each tile representing the homeland of the nearly 3,000 victims.

“[For] people who lost a loved one, it’s a place where they can go and think of them, and maybe have closure,” Jeff said. “People can go and laugh and play -- there’s so many different things.”

An impressive display needed an impressive dedication ceremony. The unveiling of the memorial featured firefighters on bagpipes, a private A-61 flyover, and the heart-wrenching words from families directly affected by Sept. 11, 2001.

“When I first moved to Florida, it was kind of like, ‘Do people in Florida remember what happened on 9/11?’ Because it just didn’t feel like it,” Trent told News 13. “This kind of brings it home and lets you know that people haven’t forgotten, and it just feels good.”

For some, the memorial may be the reminder of an eight-year-old nightmare, but for one Boy Scout, it is the culmination of a dream nine months in the making.