Kavod Garden grows near Flight 93 memorial site
'When evil comes, when terror strikes, the answer is love, peace and beauty'
STOYSTOWN, PA — A garden planted with memories is budding with new meaning. Down the road from the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, is the Remember Me Rose Garden. Visible 30,000 feet above land, the garden commemorates the 40 individuals aboard United Airlines Flight 93, who overtook terrorists and downed a plane headed toward Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001.
For years, volunteers have planted, pruned and weeded in hopes of preserving a story and fostering peace. On Oct. 27, overseers of the garden joined members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community to dedicate the Kavod Garden.
Located 40 feet from the Rose Garden, the Kavod Garden is “part of an effort to create more spaces for reflection and prayer,” Squirrel Hill resident Lauren Mallinger said. “This project has been created in the spirit of interfaith connection and trust in the hopes that the garden can continue flourishing to provide safe places for all — for those of all faiths — to feel welcome.”
The two gardens are located on land purchased and donated by Families of Flight 93, a nonprofit formed by loved ones of those lost on Sept. 11.
Winter is coming
Months before Sunday’s dedication, Mallinger, a master gardener whose mother-in-law, Rose Mallinger, was among those murdered in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, visited the Rose Garden and Memorial. The trip gave her insight into how certain plants survive Somerset County’s harsh winters.
Along with being located in Zone 5 (Pittsburgh is Zone 6), the Rose Garden sits atop “one of the highest points in Pennsylvania,” Clay Mankamyer said.
Mankamyer, the garden’s chairman, planted nearly 300 Knock Out roses there about 15 years ago.
“The first winter they all froze out,” he said.
Mankamyer experimented with other varieties also deemed hardy enough for the climate. Some worked. Most failed. Finally, Stephen Scanniello, curator of the New York Botanical Garden’s Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, introduced Mankamyer to the Julie Andrews rose.
“He managed to get us a donation of about 350 of them. And the first winter I planted them we didn’t have a single loss,” Mankamyer said.

Over time, the garden evolved. Other shrubs and flowers were introduced. To date, there are more than 600 roses, 3,000 perennials, 51 trees, and nearly 1,000 daffodil and hyacinth bulbs in the spring, Mary Alice Mankamyer said.
“Mary Alice and Clay, they’re the heart and soul of this whole thing,” John Vento, a volunteer and Rose Garden board member, said.
Growth from ashes
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Clay Mankamyer, a retired state trooper who lives “just over the ridge,” was among the first to arrive at the Flight 93 crash site.
“I toiled with it early on — the anger and the bitterness,” he said. “How do you get back at these people…the absolute hate and vitriol that was expressed by the hijackers that caused that plane to explode and forever change and shake up our little village of Shanksville and my home next door?”
Mankamyer’s answer arrived through prayer, he said. “When evil comes, when terror strikes, the answer is love, peace and beauty.”

For years, the Mankamyers have aided volunteers who regularly come to tend the garden. Bill Cenk, vice president of the Rose Garden, got involved around 2010.
“My son Ryan was adamant that he would do his Eagle Scout project in some way to honor the heroes and their families, so he raised about $14,000 to buy teakwood benches and all the platform materials that are placed around the perimeter of the Remember Me Rose Garden,” Cenk said.
Ryan Cenk was diagnosed with a brain tumor in childhood and given a two-year life expectancy. In 2017, the Eagle Scout died at 22. One year later, the half-mile tranquil trail, which Ryan Cenk adorned with 15 teakwood benches, was renamed Ryan’s Trail.
On Oct. 27, between dedicating the Kavod Garden and preparing the Rose Garden for winter, volunteers — some of whom arrived with the 10.27 Healing Partnership — quietly perused the area.
“It’s nice to know that this is out here,” Fox Chapel resident and volunteer Micah Jacobs said. “The idea that they’re putting in the Kavod Garden, and really trying to bring a multicultural element for reflection — for both Sept. 11 and Oct. 27 — is really important. We need more spaces like this in the country for people to come together instead of being split apart.”
A star is born
The Kavod Garden is based on a design by landscape architect Natalie Plecity. Mallinger, Vento and other volunteers came to the site months ago to arrange the shrubs, perennials and grasses according to Plecity’s drawing.
“I like to joke that we don’t have enough plants in the garden. We only planted 500,” Vento said.
Pointing to the bushes, Mallinger said the lilacs were chosen to withstand both the climate and local deer.
With time, the 500 plants will grow and achieve an aerial effect like the Rose Garden’s compass design. Once the Kavod Garden’s lilacs mature and its flowers bloom, pilots, flight attendants and travelers 30,000 feet above can peer down and see the plantings, which form a Star of David.
Squirrel Hill resident Alan Mallinger called the Kavod Garden a “wonderful project of unity between different religions.”
“The fact that their community, which faced such a tragedy, reached out to our community who also faced such a tragedy — and that we can join communities through our mourning and revitalization — it’s a rebirth,” Lauren Mallinger said. “Out of the ashes comes the phoenix.”

The Kavod Garden rests 40 feet from the Rose Garden. On the other side of the Rose Garden, also 40 feet away, is a large wooden cross.
Mankamyer erected it at the crash site shortly after arriving on scene in 2001, he said. When the memorial was established, there were concerns about displaying a religious symbol at a national park. The cross was eventually moved to the Rose Garden and placed at a “point of prominence.”
The Kavod Garden honors the “diversity of faith that was on that plane that day,” Vento said. “We know that there were not only four Jewish people on the plane, but there were other people of faith — there was a Buddhist, there were people without faith — and the Kavod Garden represents that diversity that up until today we have not had.”
‘We must cultivate our garden’
Lauren Mallinger and her husband, Alan, attended the Oct. 27 dedication wearing hats bearing rose emblems.
Being here is sort of ironic, Alan Mallinger said. “My mother’s name is Rose. We actually have a garden outside of the JCC, which is called Rose’s Garden. The Remember Me Rose Garden is not in memory of my mother but there’s a parallel, and the Kavod Garden certainly ties it all together.”
In Hebrew, kavod means honor or respect. The word’s three-letter root “כבד” means heavy or weighty. Throughout the Bible, the word is used in both a negative and positive sense.
Before returning to Squirrel Hill to gather with family at Rose’s Garden at the JCC, Lauren Mallinger told the Chronicle the burden of responsibility rests on every individual.
“It’s very important for people to give of themselves in whatever manner they deem fit. I love gardening. This spoke to me. And this helps me in my grief,” she said. “But if you feel like contributing or doing something else, whether it’s studying Torah or whatever, you should. You should think about ways that you can improve yourself, and give to your community.” PJC
Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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