nmah347.xml

nmah347.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-20

I woke to the sound of my phone ringing....before I could answer it, the answering machine did, and I heard my sister saying something about bombs hitting the Trade Towers and the Pentagon. I picked up the phone and began talking to her, and turned on the news just in time to watch the 2nd tower fall. I was devastated. I couldn't do anything that day except stay home and watch tv.
We have friends in Queens, and I tried to call them right away, and got the "all circuits busy, try later" message. I sent an email, which thankfully they responded to by the next morning--they were all safe.
It took me several weeks before I felt "normal" again.

Sometime during the week of Sept. 11th, I called the local chapter of the American Red Cross and asked how I could help. They told me to register to take upcoming disaster classes. I took the first available classes (held in Oct.), and a week after I was finished with my training, I was on a plane to New York City.
I spent 3 weeks working in a Service Center in China Town, helping clients affected by the disaster. It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. Being able to provide some financial relief, but most importanly, hope to these people was awesome. And the reason I could do that was because of the generosity of the American people who opened their hearts and wallets to people of New York City.
I was never more proud to be an American!! = )

I have stayed active in the Red Cross since Sept. 11th, and now volunteer on local house fires, floods, etc. I am hopefully a better, more involved citizen because of the tragedy of Sept. 11th.

That although our country was attacked, we pulled together and became stronger because of it. There were many heroes on that day, and many who became heroes afterward, by contributing their time and energy, and resources to help our country recover.

I have always flown the flag on holidays, but did fly it everyday for about a month after Sept. 11th. I loved seeing all the flags--on houses, cars, businesses, etc.