Marion artist's 9/11 painting replicated on billboard

Alexander Byron's painting, "We Must Never Forget."

"We Must Never Forget" has not been forgotten. A replica of Marion artist Alexander Byron's painting of New York firefighters putting up an American flag in the rubble of the World Trade Center towers after Sept. 11, 2001, has been resurrected.

The painting had been displayed on a small billboard since Sept. 11, 2002, on Cranberry Highway in Wareham, just before Buzzards Bay near the Cape Cod Canal, honoring the victims of the terrorist attacks. The worn original was replaced last year with a more weather-resistant replica. But last February, a storm damaged the painting and billboard, knocking both to the ground.

Thanks to volunteer efforts, another replica has been created and erected. In June, Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical High School students, under the supervision of Kevin McFady and James McCue, and Michael Levesque, manager of Home Depot in Wareham, which donated supplies, rebuilt the billboard.

Poyant Signs of New Bedford volunteered to put up the billboard, and Mammoth Media of Pembroke did the replica, as it had for the installation in 2002.

"The brothers who own Mammoth Media, Mark and Ken Rowell, were great," said Joanne Byron, sister of Alexander Byron. "They used a huge HP Scitex printer and the poster was printed on heavy-duty PVC. There are very few printers of this kind in the country available for this kind of work, and only three or four in Massachusetts."

A group of community leaders, led by Jeff Luce, community relations and economic development specialist from NStar Electric, along with Earl Fowler, a retired Wareham firefighter; Deputy Jeffrey Oswald of the Onset Fire Department; and Wareham Police Detective Dennis Damata worked together to coordinate the project, Byron said.

Luce and NStar line crew members Matthew Rezendes and Brian Blair, along with supervisors Robert Gray and Michael Paulicelli, installed the poles for the billboard. The project was rededicated last Thursday, the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

LEADERSHIP SCHOLARSHIP: Kathleen Farrell-Michel of Brockton, a program manager at the Boston-based hopeFound, has won a scholarship to the Sixth Annual Leadership Institute, a yearlong leadership development program offered by the New England Institute of Addiction Studies. She manages hopeFound's Stabilization Program, an intensive, 28-day post-detoxification program that annually serves 580 men.

ORCHESTRA FINDS HOME: The newly formed Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra has found a permanent home at the Showcase Live at Patriot Place in Foxborough. The orchestra, under director of Lawrence Isaacson, was going to hold its concerts this inaugural season at Sharon High School, but space became available at the new retail development in Foxborough. The orchestra's debut concert is Oct. 5 at 3 p.m. For information, visit nvporchestra.org.

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Kathy Abbott has been named to the new position of executive vice president at the Trustees of Reservations' Sharon office. The agency is the nation's oldest statewide land trust and conservation organization. Abbott, former commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, has served as the trustees' vice president for field operations since May of 2007. In her newly created role, she serves as the organization's second-ranking officer and oversees the trustees' Conservation Group. Donna Fernandes of Carver has been named executive director of the Habitat for Humanity of Greater Plymouth. Fernandes has been a habitat volunteer since the local affiliate's founding in 1997 and was past board president. Funding for the position was made possible by a grant from Eastern Bank. Named president of the Habitat chapter was former vice president, Judy Randall, and moving into her spot was Arnie Thorell. Sara Callard has joined Century 21/Annex Realty in Quincy as a full-time real estate agent. The Market, a 14,000-square-foot supermarket, has opened at the Pinehills in Plymouth. Managing director Michael Szathmary said the store is smaller than many supermarkets, part of a national trend toward small-format grocery stores. "We have held many meetings with shoppers and repeatedly heard they were not happy pushing their carts down aisles the lengths of a football field," he said.

Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at pkandarian@aol.com.