Remembering Andrew

As the years pass, memories of September 11 fade, especially the memories of those who were too young to fully comprehend what happened.

To ensure that future generations never forget the more than 3,000 innocent people died on that fateful day, and to honor the memory of Andrew J. Stern, a graduate of Centre Avenue Elementary and East Rockaway High School who was killed in the World Trade Center, his family hosted the 4th annual Andrew J. Stern Memorial Essay Contest. Three winners were selected by the Stern family, and those students read their essays at Tuesday's East Rockaway school board meeting. Each winner received $100 from the family.

Students in grades 4-12 were eligible to enter the contest, and this year more than 600 essays were submitted, with “bravery” being the theme. Lisa Birch, Stern's sister, said students were asked to write 500 words or less on what bravery meant to them. Students could describe a personal situation in which bravery was displayed, Birch said, or reference a character in a book or person in history who exhibited bravery. Her family read the essays, and many of them left them emotional. "The students of East Rockaway have a good idea of bravery," she said. "We were really moved."

The winner in the fourth to sixth grade bracket was 11-year-old Joseph McGeary. He wrote about his grandfather who served in the Navy, the New York Fire Department, suffered a heart attack and stroke, and battled prostate cancer for nine years until he lost his fight two months ago. "He is by far the bravest person I will ever know," McGeary wrote. "I only hope I can be the brave and courageous person he was."

In the seventh to ninth grade category, 12-year-old Colleen Bennett was the winner. Bennett wrote about her mother's friend's sister, who died during 9/11. She said the woman, who worked on one of the top floors in the WTC, knew that after the first plane hit, her chance of surviving was grim, so she called her sister to say her final goodbye. The woman's brother-in-law answered the phone and talked her through the most frightening time in her life, until she succumbed to smoke inhalation and passed out. "I believe he was the hero," Bennett wrote. "Though the woman died, the brother-in-law was able to conceal his pain enough to provide her strength in her last frightening moment. Even though some people would not see what he did and his actions as bravery, I would and always will."

The winner in the 10th to 12th grade section was 15-year-old Katherine Seifert. She wrote about her father's deployment to Iraq in 2004 and how brave her mother was when her father left for war. "She kept everything together when everything could have fallen apart," Seifert said about her mother.

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