Kids who lost loved ones on 9/11 channel grief into art at America's Camp

"Every feather has a story," Traci Molloy, the camp's former artistic director, said in an interview with ABC News' Linsey Davis, in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Molloy says the phoenix, in its kaleidoscopic glory, is a record of love and loss.

The artists of the piece grew up together, returning to Western Massachusetts each year to attend America's Camp, where Molloy says the children ultimately became a family.

"I have had the extraordinary gift of being able to watch them grow up," Molloy said. "I have known them longer than their deceased parent, and so has everyone at America's Camp. "

She continued, "I've been so blessed, because I've been able to be with many of these kids and watch them through just rites-of-passage moments in their lives. "

The children are descendants of some of the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the wreckage site of United Airlines Flight 93.

Siblings Amy Gardner and Chris Gardner attended America's Camp for several years after the death of their father, firefighter Thomas Gardner, on 9/11.

"I can see the image of him waving goodbye to me right by the tree," Amy Gardner told Davis of the last memory of her father as he left for work before the 9/11 attacks.

"You hold on to any kind of hope you have, because you just -- as a kid, I feel like it's not, like, fathomable," Chris Gardner added, describing what it was like waiting to hear from his father in the days after the attacks.

Fellow camper Brittney Roy, who followed in her father's footsteps to become a police officer, also recalled the pain of losing her father on 9/11, in an interview with Davis.

"I didn't really have an opportunity to really understand what was happening," said Roy, who was in second grade at the time. "Sometimes it's hard to believe, 'Wait, I actually went through that. '"

Roy, Amy Gardner, and Chris Gardner all described America's Camp as an opportunity to find some sense of normalcy in the aftermath of the tragedy.

"The opportunities they gave us, the friendships they gave, the bonds, the ability, at the time when we were just all labeled the 9/11 kids, to just be kids again -- it truly gave me my childhood back," Roy said.

Amy Gardner echoed that sentiment.

"America's Camp just let us be kids during the day. We could be as goofy as we wanted and we got to enjoy our childhood," she said. "And then at night, you all had this understanding that you were there for the same reason. "

Among the art on the phoenix sculpture created by the kids of America's Camp are a Hawaiian flower, honoring one camper's mother's heritage, and another that featured a figure and a haunting description: "Man somewhere he shouldn't be. "

"You could feel the ache and the longing," Molloy said of the work.

Standing in front of the phoenix sculpture, Chris Gardner reflected on the piece and how it contextualized the massive loss the group endured together and apart.

"There's no getting over grief. You kind of live with it and learn to endure it. And it's a new kind of life," he said. "Projects like this are one of those things that kind of help you understand that. "

"9/11 Paying Tribute: Live from Lower Manhattan,” a half-hour ABC News multiplatform live special, premieres Friday, Sept. 11, at 7:30 p.m. EDT across ABC News Live, WABC-TV, and ABC Owned Television Stations livestreams.