St. Michael's Cemetery to Hold 9/11 Memorial Services
The memorial established by the Santar Family at St. Michael's Cemetery. On September 8, St. Michael's Cemetery, East Elmhurst, will celebrate the lives of the 76 New York City firefighters who lived in the borough and/or worked at fire companies in Queens with a 9/11 Memorial Service. Edward Horn, St. Michael's director of community relations, is planning the event. Ceremonies will also commemorate the 37 Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) officers who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
The America's Quilt, a woven tapestry bearing the faces of everyone lost on September 11, will also be part of the fourth annual memorial service to take place at St. Michael's. It is the work of women across the nation who sought a means to offer respect and condolences to the families who lost a loved one. The Quilt's founders with the sections of the Quilt that bear the faces of all the members of the FDNY and PAPD who died at the Twin Towers on 9/11will be present. On Saturday, September 9, the entire Quilt will be dedicated at Ground Zero. Representatives of St. Michael's Cemetery have been requested to attend the ceremony.
The focal point of the memorial service will be the memorial to the firefighters who lost their lives at Ground Zero when the World trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. The memorial was established by the family of Christopher Santora, a Queens College graduate who turned down an appointment as a teacher at I.S. 10 to become a Fire Department "probie". On the job for just eight months on 9/11, Santora and his colleagues at his Manhattan firehouse, Engine Company 54, sped off to the burning World Trade Center, never to return. At 23 years old, Santora was one of the youngest firefighters in the department's history and is believed to be the youngest to die when the Twin Towers collapsed.
The Santora family also established the Christopher Santora Educational Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to the sons and daughters of firefighters at local fire companies and companies where Christopher Santora served who have graduated from their respective high schools. In prior years, the fund has also provided history and reference books for each classroom and the libraries at P.S. 2 and P.S. 122, physical education equipment for students at the Queensview Nursery School and savings bonds for winning artists in pre-kindergarten, first and second grade at the Firefighter Christopher Santora Early Childhood School, P.S. 222, and funds for all students to attend Fire Zone during Fire Safety Week. A scholarship at Cathy's Dance Studio, Astoria, which all the Santora children attended, has also been provided on previous occasions.
The idea for a monument to the PAPD arose when Sergeant Tom Hoey of the PAPD went to the cemetery offices on business and saw the firefighters' memorial. St. Michael's will donate the land for the memorial, Horn said. The monument will be similar to that for the firefighters, with memorial medallions into which a visitor will be able to plug a set of headphones and hear the life story of an individual PAPD officer.
The monument will be made of polished black stone into which will be etched the Police Department insignia and the names of the 37 officers: Christopher C. Amoroso, Maurice V. Barry, Liam Callahan, Robert D. Carl, Clinton Davis, Donald A. Foreman, Gregg J. Froehner, Thomas G. Gorman, Uiiuru G. Houston, George C. Howard, Stephen Huczko, Anthony Infante Jr., Paul W. Jurgens, Robert M. Kaulfers, Paul Laszczynski, David P. LeMagne, John J. Lennon, James F. Lynch, Kathy Mazza, Donald J. McIntyre, Walter A. McNeil, Fred W. Morrone, Joseph M. Navas, James Nelson, Alfonse J. Niedermeyer, James W. Parham, Dominick A. Pezzulo, Bruce A. Reynolds, Antonio J. Rodrigues, Richard Rodriguez, James Romito, John F. Skala, Walwyn W. Stuart, Kenneth F. Tietjen, Nathaniel Webb and Michael T. Wholey. A sketch of the proposed monument has evoked powerful and positive responses from PAPD personnel.
Lim knew he would need both hands free to help evacuate civilians from the building. Consequently, Lim left Sirius in his basement cage, where he believed he would be safe, and raced upstairs into the North Tower. Just as he reached the 44th floor, the second plane crashed into the South Tower.
As Lim was escorting civilians down the fire stairs to safety, the building began to collapse. Miraculously, he and those he was assisting found themselves standing in the remains of a crumbled fifth floor fire stairway that had not collapsed completely. Lim and those with him were eventually evacuated from their precarious perch with the aid of ropes tossed to them by other rescuers.
Once assured of the safety of his civilian evacuees, Lim tried desperately to make his way back down to the severely damaged basement police station to rescue Sirius. Other rescuers stopped him because the area was too dangerous to enter. Sirius, whose life was dedicated to the dangerous job of searching for bombs as part of America's War on Terrorism, died in a terrorist attack that even he, with all his training and experience, was powerless to detect.
St. Michael's Cemetery is located at 72-02 Astoria Blvd., East Elmhurst. For more information, call 718-278-3240.
The America's Quilt, a woven tapestry bearing the faces of everyone lost on September 11, will also be part of the fourth annual memorial service to take place at St. Michael's. It is the work of women across the nation who sought a means to offer respect and condolences to the families who lost a loved one. The Quilt's founders with the sections of the Quilt that bear the faces of all the members of the FDNY and PAPD who died at the Twin Towers on 9/11will be present. On Saturday, September 9, the entire Quilt will be dedicated at Ground Zero. Representatives of St. Michael's Cemetery have been requested to attend the ceremony.
The focal point of the memorial service will be the memorial to the firefighters who lost their lives at Ground Zero when the World trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. The memorial was established by the family of Christopher Santora, a Queens College graduate who turned down an appointment as a teacher at I.S. 10 to become a Fire Department "probie". On the job for just eight months on 9/11, Santora and his colleagues at his Manhattan firehouse, Engine Company 54, sped off to the burning World Trade Center, never to return. At 23 years old, Santora was one of the youngest firefighters in the department's history and is believed to be the youngest to die when the Twin Towers collapsed.
The Santora family also established the Christopher Santora Educational Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to the sons and daughters of firefighters at local fire companies and companies where Christopher Santora served who have graduated from their respective high schools. In prior years, the fund has also provided history and reference books for each classroom and the libraries at P.S. 2 and P.S. 122, physical education equipment for students at the Queensview Nursery School and savings bonds for winning artists in pre-kindergarten, first and second grade at the Firefighter Christopher Santora Early Childhood School, P.S. 222, and funds for all students to attend Fire Zone during Fire Safety Week. A scholarship at Cathy's Dance Studio, Astoria, which all the Santora children attended, has also been provided on previous occasions.
The idea for a monument to the PAPD arose when Sergeant Tom Hoey of the PAPD went to the cemetery offices on business and saw the firefighters' memorial. St. Michael's will donate the land for the memorial, Horn said. The monument will be similar to that for the firefighters, with memorial medallions into which a visitor will be able to plug a set of headphones and hear the life story of an individual PAPD officer.
The monument will be made of polished black stone into which will be etched the Police Department insignia and the names of the 37 officers: Christopher C. Amoroso, Maurice V. Barry, Liam Callahan, Robert D. Carl, Clinton Davis, Donald A. Foreman, Gregg J. Froehner, Thomas G. Gorman, Uiiuru G. Houston, George C. Howard, Stephen Huczko, Anthony Infante Jr., Paul W. Jurgens, Robert M. Kaulfers, Paul Laszczynski, David P. LeMagne, John J. Lennon, James F. Lynch, Kathy Mazza, Donald J. McIntyre, Walter A. McNeil, Fred W. Morrone, Joseph M. Navas, James Nelson, Alfonse J. Niedermeyer, James W. Parham, Dominick A. Pezzulo, Bruce A. Reynolds, Antonio J. Rodrigues, Richard Rodriguez, James Romito, John F. Skala, Walwyn W. Stuart, Kenneth F. Tietjen, Nathaniel Webb and Michael T. Wholey. A sketch of the proposed monument has evoked powerful and positive responses from PAPD personnel.
Lim knew he would need both hands free to help evacuate civilians from the building. Consequently, Lim left Sirius in his basement cage, where he believed he would be safe, and raced upstairs into the North Tower. Just as he reached the 44th floor, the second plane crashed into the South Tower.
As Lim was escorting civilians down the fire stairs to safety, the building began to collapse. Miraculously, he and those he was assisting found themselves standing in the remains of a crumbled fifth floor fire stairway that had not collapsed completely. Lim and those with him were eventually evacuated from their precarious perch with the aid of ropes tossed to them by other rescuers.
Once assured of the safety of his civilian evacuees, Lim tried desperately to make his way back down to the severely damaged basement police station to rescue Sirius. Other rescuers stopped him because the area was too dangerous to enter. Sirius, whose life was dedicated to the dangerous job of searching for bombs as part of America's War on Terrorism, died in a terrorist attack that even he, with all his training and experience, was powerless to detect.
St. Michael's Cemetery is located at 72-02 Astoria Blvd., East Elmhurst. For more information, call 718-278-3240.
posted by "Faces of the Brave" at 6:15 PM
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