ST. JOSEPH — Aaron Floor, 22, and Eddie Alcala, 23, were not even in high school yet on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists flew airplanes into the Twin Towers in New York City.

But they are old enough to remember that fateful day, and now, they can say they’ve helped bring a piece of that memory to Berrien County.

The two men are volunteer firefighter/engineers with the Niles Charter Township Fire Department. Along with Alcala’s mother, DixieLee Shafer of Buchanan, they left Niles at 2 p.m. Wednesday and drove a pickup truck to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where they picked up a very special artifact.

The Berrien County Chapter of the American Red Cross was approved to receive a piece of the wreckage from 9-11.

Alcala, Floor and Shafer delivered a 524-pound, 60-inch-long piece — what is believed to be a steel beam — to the Red Cross office in St. Joseph at 9 a.m. Friday. It took them 43 hours round-trip to pick up the artifact.

Little is known about the artifact — what part it is, or which tower it came from — but it’s the significance of the piece that counts.

Floor, Alcala and Shafer said the most memorable part of the trip was entering the hangar at the airport, where the artifacts were prepared for pick-up.

Hundreds of items were handed out; the Berrien County Red Cross’ piece was selected for them.

Among the items was a bike rack complete with bicycles.

“The emotion that was felt … like the bicycles. It was pretty awesome,” Shafer said.

“It’s kind of a surreal feeling seeing that stuff,” Floor said.

When the Red Cross learned of a call for non-profits to apply for artifacts to construct memorials, it submitted an application in September 2009. It was notified of its pre-approval in January 2010. Proper liability insurance was required to transport the artifact. The pickup date was announced in March.

The Red Cross didn’t know what artifact it was approved for; it just had a number assigned by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s World Trade Center Archive.

“All we had was a number. We didn’t know what it was,” said Angie Laskarides, regional director of emergency services for the American Red Cross. She has spearheaded the effort to bring an artifact to Berrien County.

The Red Cross then notified agencies in the area that volunteers were needed to drive to New York.

Niles Charter Township Fire Chief Gary Brovold said Floor and Alcala volunteered to go. He had casually mentioned to his staff that volunteers were needed to transport the artifact from New York to St. Joseph.

“It was the chance of a lifetime,” Brovold said.

The artifact is temporarily housed at the Red Cross’ new office at 3838 Niles Ave., but a base and plaque will be constructed for its permanent memorial in the garden in front of the office.

“We wanted anyone to be able to see it,” Laskarides said.

The memorial will be dedicated at the office on Sept. 11, during the Berrien County Riders’ “Ride to Remember,” which benefits the Red Cross.