Money available for student buses to Flight 93 Memorial

Western Pennsylvania school districts can seek money to help pay to transport students to the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, which commemorates the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93, who gave their lives to prevent hijackers from crashing the plane in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, a nonprofit partner of the national memorial, has money for school districts planning visits to the Somerset County site to join in standard-based educational programming developed for students in grades four through 12. The Pirates Charities and the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation have provided grants to help pay for the transportation costs.

The Flight 93 National Memorial Learning Center is a classroom where teachers, students, park rangers and volunteers explore the story of Flight 93 and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Last year, more than 8,000 students attended talks there on the story of Flight 93, the memorial’s design and its importance in society.

The goal of the initiative is to continue teaching the generation of students born after Sept. 11, 2001, about the terror attacks, the Friends group said. To learn more about obtaining the money, transportation scholarship applications are available for download on the Friends’ education page.

The Friends group is an approved education organization under the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program and can accept donations from EITC- approved funders that will support education programs at Flight 93 National Memorial.

To learn more about the EITC program, visit https://dced.pa.gov/educational-improvementorganizations/ or to donate to support the Friends’ education initiatives visit https://www.flight93friends.org/donate.