A black granite memorial with a soaring eagle statue perched atop sits outside the gates of a Ken Caryl Ranch southwest of Denver.

“May he soar with the eagles,” it reads.

It pays tribute to United flight 93 Capt. Jason Dahl, who died on Sept. 11, 2001, after the plane was hijacked by terrorists. It was the only one of the four hijacked planes that didn’t reach its intended target that fateful day, instead crashing in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers and crew overwhelmed the four hijackers.

The memorial in Ken Caryl Ranch and the one in Shanksville are not the only things that have kept Dahl’s memory alive.

The Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund has doled out 238 scholarships – 23 in 2023 – worth almost $500,000 to college students studying aviation. And for the last 10 years, hundreds of fifth grade students have written essays about heroes in their lives for the Heartland Heroes Essay Program, started by Dahl’s widow, Sandy Dahl, and Sam Palamara, the former principal of Bradford K8 North, where the Dahl children went to school.

Both stemmed from significant events in Dahl’s life. He earned a scholarship to San Jose State University by writing an essay on why he wanted to be a pilot. San Jose State and Metro State University of Denver were the first two to offer the scholarship in 2002. Now, the program is a nationwide nonprofit organization.

“I knew Sandy well,” said Tom Bush, a former neighbor and the president of the fund. “She was the one, shortly after her husband was killed, who got together with friends and neighbors to honor her husband and the heroes of 9/11.”

Over the weekend, the program flew the top scholarship winners into Denver for a celebration and tour of the United flight training center, Bush said.

“We want to honor his name and legacy,” Bush said. “We also want to turn something really bad into something good, and something to look forward to … It also honors not only Jason, but all the heroes that day from the first responders to the passengers of flight 93.”

“Jason was the guy that, if he saw someone in need, he would go out of his way to help – it didn’t matter if it was a perfect stranger, a friend or a family member,” he said.

In Life at Ken-Caryl, the community newsletter for the Ken Caryl Ranch community, Bush remembered how Dahl worked to surprise his wife by planting the daffodils she had always wanted outside the family home’s front door.

“While she was away from home one afternoon, he secretly recruited friends to plant the entire area Sandy wanted with hundreds of daffodil bulbs. The project was completed and Jason never said a word about it to Sandy, wanting it to be a surprise the next spring,” Bush said. “Following Jason’s passing, the daffodil planting was totally forgotten by all because of the tragedy of Sept. 11. Then, one morning the following spring, I received a call from Sandy in disbelieving tears of joy describing to me of how she discovered Jason’s final act of love for her.”

Dahl had traded shifts and took flight 93 from another pilot so he could take Sandy to London for their fifth anniversary, which would have been Sept. 13, 2001.

Palamara, the former Bradford principal, said the essays produced for the Heartland Heroes program each year touches his heart and strengthens his belief in the next generation.

“I saw the eagle monument there, but I didn’t know what it was for. I was unaware Jason Dahl lived down the street from the school,” he said. “Right after the 10th anniversary, the monument had been vandalized and Sandy was very concerned and upset. Sandy and Tom (Bush) told me about the foundation and she wanted to make sure the kids knew Jason lived there … and that they didn’t forget someone right in their midst was a hero of 9/11.”

A dozen schools in Jeffco have embraced the program, where every year fifth graders write about heroes in their lives as part of the American history curriculum.

“It’s important 9/11 stays front and center in American history,” Palamara said. 

“We thought at first it would be about sports heroes or movie stars, but the kids don’t do that,” he said. “They always write about mom, dad, a grandparent or neighbors … One student wrote about his uncle, who donated a kidney to his dad and how that inspired him to be a better person.”

With the help of business sponsors Colorado Community Credit Union, Texas Roadhouse and Chick-Fil-A, students with the best essays are given meal gift certificates and other prizes.

Teachers pick out the best essays, and the students read them at assemblies – often with the child’s chosen hero present.

“A couple of years ago, a mother forced her high-school aged daughter to come to her younger sister’s assembly,” Palamara said. “She didn’t know what was going on, and obviously a bit upset she had to be there, turning sideways and on her phone not paying attention. When her little sister started reading the essay and realized she was the hero, she broke out in tears.”

He added: “It’s those types of things that really stick with me. … These kids inspire us. Every time we go there, we walk out eyes watery. They write about people doing amazing things. I tell you I don’t worry as much about the future afterwards.”

Sandy Dahl, who died in 2012, earlier promised to keep her husband’s memory alive. 

“I will not let Flight 93 go unrecognized or Jason be forgotten,” she said in an interview before the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

More information about the scholarship program is available here: www.dahlfund.org.