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Crime & Safety

Lake Forest Dispatcher Recalls Taking Action After 9/11

On Sept. 11, 2001, Kasey Morgan went from sitting in her college dormitory to helping at Ground Zero.

Immediately after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Kasey Morgan, then a college student at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, began to arrange a trip to Ground Zero.

“I was sitting in my college dorm room and I felt helpless. It was the littlest thing that I could do to contribute,” she said.

She went to campus ministry services, and even the university president to seek counsel and ideas, and ultimately support when she identified the right opportunity — to assist Ground Zero Food Services in getting rescue workers off the site, feed them hot meals and then just listen and hear their stories.

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She organized an official university student group, raised funds for the trip and led the charge to New York City.

“Every time a body was found or remnants of a body found, there were moments of silence," Morgan recalled. "We all respected what was going on. I spent quite a bit of time there. I attended memorial services, tended to firemen and all the other volunteers down there."

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Now living in Lake Forest and a , she and her husband, Todd Morgan, have a 3-month-old son, Spencer.

“My dad was a fireman for 31 years for the city of Highland Park. I think being raised in a firefighter household and doing the volunteer work I did, it all comes full circle,” she said. “Moving forward, raising Spencer with good values and morals, and teaching him to give back, is something we have to do.”

“It’s a great day to remember all of the fallen heroes from Sept. 11th and everybody (who) continues to serve the country," she added. “It’s just a special day for everybody to reflect on what happened 10 years ago and move forward.”

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