Lower Manhattan and Iwilei are neighborhoods with an entire nation between them. But they are bound to each other, as Americans prepare to mark tomorrow's fourth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, by a small piece of concrete enshrined in a new memorial at Honolulu Community College.

The golf-ball-sized piece came from the rubble of the World Trade Center. It was donated to the college this summer by a New York resident who wished to remain anonymous.

Designed by a sheet-metal instructor on campus, Danny Aiu, the entire memorial was built with donated funds and materials and volunteer labor. It is made of gleaming polished steel and plexiglass and was placed beside a 3-ton piece of the Berlin Wall.

Neal and Jan Snyder, the parents of 9/11 Hawai'i victim and HCC alumna Christine Snyder, unveiled the memorial yesterday at the campus their daughter attended in the late 1990s.

The Snyders were moved by the dedication ceremony, as were many of the 200 people who attended. They sang "God Bless America" and placed stalks of red ginger at the base of the memorial.

"I think through all these years your heart grows with people's thoughts and the notes you receive," Jan Snyder said afterward. "But to have something like this, for all of those lost, is nice."

The couple, who wore small buttons with their daughter's photo on them, were given a small replica of the memorial. Like the larger version, it contained bits of the donated rubble from the World Trade Center.

Neal Snyder said the memorial was beautiful and the ceremony went right to his heart. But he was mindful that 9/11 is about more than his daughter. The attacks and the nation's subsequent war on terror created a lot of grieving families.

When one of the dedication speakers, HCC student Angie Kehmeier, began sobbing as she recalled a high school classmate killed in Iraq — Hawai'i Army National Guard Sgt. Deyson Cariaga — the Snyders got up from their seats to comfort her.

"It was a very touching moment for herself," Neal Snyder said later.

"A lot of people are hurting. Sometimes you forget. I know I do."

An arborist with The Outdoor Circle, Christine Snyder was a passenger on United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked by terrorists. The flight crashed into a Pennsylvania field, killing everyone aboard. Snyder was 32.

Snyder's dreams and sacrifice underscored the ceremony yesterday.

"Christine's family would like her to be remembered as a woman who only wanted to make the world a better place," said Leilani Hinds, an HCC English teacher.

After their flight was hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, the passengers fought back, derailing the terrorist plan to crash the plane in Washington, D.C. In defeating the terrorists, they made the world a better place, Hinds said.

"And they lost their lives in doing so," she added.

Bob Vericker, a retired New York FBI agent who teaches criminal justice classes at HCC, was instrumental in obtaining the chunk of concrete for the memorial. He told yesterday's gathering that it was "now joined with our 'aina."

When they first started planning a memorial, faculty and staff hoped to obtain a piece of the fallen trade center but had no idea how hard it would be to get, Vericker said.

"Anyone who has a piece is reluctant to part with it," he said.

Vericker said the donor was standing near ground zero not long after the attack when a rubble-filled truck rumbled past. It hit a bump right in front of the donor and a piece of concrete fell off the truck. A New York police officer told the donor to keep it and he placed it in a safe- deposit box, Vericker said.

But earlier this year, the donor learned from Vericker's brother — a New York photographer — that HCC wanted a piece of the trade center for a memorial.

Vericker said he flew to New York and checked out the story, just to be sure.

"We know the person," he said yesterday after the dedication. "My brother knows the donor. He knows his co-workers. We know. I met the donor's boss. I made sure."

The memorial, which was built in the past five months, is clean and simple, Vericker said.

"It's perfect," he said.

"It's a memorial from the heart."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.