Mementos of atrocity

Associated Press

NEW YORK – A Georgia company is selling commemorative medallions made with recycled steel from the World Trade Center, angering some relatives of Sept. 11 victims.

“I think it’s disturbing. They’re profiting off our losses,” Marian Fontana said Wednesday. Fontana, the president of a victims’ families group lost her firefighter husband, Dave.

The medallions are forged from an alloy, 25 percent of which is recycled trade center steel. They are offered on the Internet and at collectible stores for $29.95.

About 60,000 tons of trade center steel have been shipped to recyclers around the world, including International Agile Manufacturing, a foundry in Statesboro, Ga.

Alfonzo Hall, the company’s president and chief executive officer, called complaints about the medallions, which feature a flag waving behind the twin towers, a “slap in the face.”

“We felt it was necessary to do something very tasteful where people all over the United States who have never been to New York could feel a part of the event,” Hall said.

He said the company bought enough steel from a New Jersey salvage yard to make 6 million medallions and has sold about 10,000. Ten percent of the profits will benefit charities, Hall said. The company also pledged to set aside 5,000 to 10,000 medallions for victims’ families at no charge.

The company said Wednesday that positive responses to the medallions have outweighed the negative. “They’re saying finally, after watching this on television for weeks, they have something to connect them with the tragedy,” said human resources manager Rodney Sprauve.

Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son, Christian, was killed on Sept. 11, termed the medallions “ghoulish.”

“The last thing I need to look at is a memento that represents the building that killed my son,” she said.