A piece of the World Trade Center came to KC

Catch up quick: The family of Stephen Siller, a firefighter who was one of the 343 Fire Department of New York members who died on 9/11, started the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

• The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey later gave the foundation steel from the South Tower, where Siller was last seen.

What they're saying: The foundation picked the museum because it honors "the service and sacrifice of those who answered their country's call," a spokesperson tells Axios, calling it the same instinct that sent firefighters into the towers.

• The foundation calls the beam sacred, "an everlasting tribute to Stephen and the more than 1,000 victims whose bodies were never recovered."

Zoom in: The foundation is not new to town. It has paid off the mortgages of at least six local families who lost a first responder or service member in the line of duty.

• Among those in attendance were the families of KCPD officer James Muhlbauer, Fairway officer Jonah Oswald and KCFD Capt. Patrick Brian Williams, whose widow, Jenny, came to see the beam.

The bottom line: The steel is going back to ground zero, but the foundation says it hopes each stop keeps the stories of those lost alive.