On April 19, 1995, Neil Arter felt the effects of the bomb blast and could see the smoke rising from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building from the Oklahoma Christian University campus.

His recollection of parts of what happened during the hours and days that followed are a bit foggy. He remembers having questions: What happened? Where did things go wrong? Who did this?

“Like many Oklahomans and Americans, members of the OC community learned about various needs related to the search and rescue effort,” said Arter, now OC’s vice president for student life and dean of students. “To help those at Ground Zero they brought water and then blankets, gloves, whatever the media requested.

“As time passed, OC administration learned about alumni who were involved in the search and rescue operation and in the archiving process,” Arter said. The university also has brought survivors to speak to OC students to help them understand what happened.

Additionally, an OC alum supported 419 Outreach, an Oklahoma organization dedicated to outreach, education and helping mitigate the effects of terrorism in Oklahoma and around the world. The same alum facilitated annual communication between survivors, family members and rescue workers of Sept. 11 and the Oklahoma City bombing.

In a show of appreciation to the OC community — a  show of solidarity between the two cities affected by the tragedies — 419 Outreach is donating a seedling from the Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. It was donated with a piece of granite salvaged from the Murrah Building ruins for the 17th anniversary of the bombing.Members of the New York delegation carried a cutting from the tree that survived the attacks on the World Trade Center and a steel cross cut from steel in the North Tower.

The survivors and rescue workers had a tree-planting ceremony and dedication of a memorial plaque.

419 Outreach Committee Vice President Joanne Hutchison said the tree planting and donation of granite from the Murrah Building are important to members of her organization.

“To our knowledge this will be the only tree in Oklahoma that came from the survivor tree that stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center and planted next to the seedling of our Survivor Tree,” Hutchison said. “That makes this place truly special.”

Hutchison said OC students and alumni have been instrumental in educational outreach connected to these horrific events, making OC an appropriate place to have such a memorial.