United Rentals Dedicates New Training Center to Sept. 11 First Responders
United Rentals dedicated its Center of Excellence, a designated training branch for new and existing employees, in Ridgefield Park, N.J., to the First Responders, including those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
At the ceremony David Hobbs, senior vice president of operations, United Rentals, presented a $100,000 donation from the company to The National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The donation will help fund the Memorial Glade, a dedicated space integrated into the Memorial Plaza that honors ground zero rescue and recovery workers as well as those who became sick or died from exposure to toxins from the World Trade Center.
More than 200 people attended the event, which included a flag ceremony in the front of the building, followed by a building dedication with a ribbon cutting and revealing of a plaque in honor of First Responders. The ceremony included government officials from Ridgefield Park, law enforcement and fire department representatives from New Jersey and New York City, and United Rentals employees and executives. The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation was also present.
“This dedication honors those who serve the community every day and those who lost their life,” said Hobbs. “United Rentals has previously dedicated other Centers of Excellence facilities to the various branches of the military, and we are proud to dedicate our Ridgefield Park building to the First Responders of September 11. The events of 9/11 are an integral part of the history in this region, so we wanted to show our ongoing appreciation and dedication to this community and our country.”
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.