By Anthony Rifilato
"People started writing on it before we could put it up," Scialdone said. "It's pretty immense when you look at all the names. It seems that seeing their child's name brings out strong feelings."
Scialdone was at Ground Zero last week on behalf of ArtAID, a non-profit organization he helped jumpstart immediately after Sept. 11 that has been producing memorial artwork for the families, police officers, firefighters and others agencies that lost people that day. The banner he unfurled last week was hung at St. Paul's Chapel, near the attack site.
The artwork ranges from the immense, such as a 50-foot banner placed at the Ground Zero viewing platform last year with the names of all the victims, to the pocket sized, like the color print of an angel holding the Port Authority insignia in one hand and a sword in the other, surrounded by the names of the victims.
For two years, ArtAID has given out thousands of posters, prints and banners, and their memorial angels have become icons throughout the city. "They've been used as a vehicle of healing," Scialdone said.
A Bay Ridge resident and former sports bar owner, Scialdone knew many of the victims and their families. "I had known so many cops and firemen," Scialdone said. "Anytime I would go through Bay Ridge there were funerals left and right."
Shortly after the tragedy, Scialdone, who owns Millenium Protective Services, a security company in Baldwin, wanted to pay homage to the victims.
But he wasn't sure how. So, on a whim, he searched the Internet, and came across a web site for ArtAID, a group initially intended to benefit starving artists. Through that, he met the creator of the web site, a New York City artist, Keith "the artist" Piaseczny, who had also wanted to create a tribute to all the heroes.
The two hit it off, and Keith designed a poster for the firefighters --an angel hovering below the FDNY letters. The two began distributing the works to firehouses across the city. ArtAID produced 30,000 copies for the first anniversary of the attacks, which were given out at Ground Zero.
"We just handed them out for free," Scialdone said. "It started our ball rolling."
Demand for the art work began almost immediately. The firefighter's angel was eventually distributed to every firehouse in New York City. Subsequent memorial angels have been donated to FDNY fundraisers and helped raise thousands of dollars for various firefighter funds.
Other agencies began requesting "guardian angels" for their departments as well, and ArtAid has produced unique angels for the police, emergency service workers, New York City court officers, and the recovery workers who were at Ground Zero.
With Keith creating the artwork, Scialdone became the main sponsor of the organization, and has taken a hands-on approach, from delivering boxes of posters to working to make ArtAID a non-profit.
In addition to 9/11 memorials, ArtAID has also created works for other tragedies, such as remembrance cards for the victims of Flight 587 that crashed in the Rockaways shortly after Sept. 11 and the crew of NASA Space Shuttle Columbia, as well as for undercover detectives Rodney Andrews and James Nemorin who were killed in the line of duty earlier this year.
ArtAID has also submitted a design for the World Trade Center memorial, one of 5,200 currently being reviewed. The design would feature an etched glass memorial wall with all of the victim's names that would illuminate when touched and would fully preserve the footprints of the towers.
Scialdone is saving all of the artifacts that were left at the Ground Zero viewing platform last year and other banners that ArtAID placed across the city. A staggering array of battered American flags, diaries, photos and other personal mementos are currently in storage at the Millenium offices at St. Luke's Place in Baldwin.
"We thought of creating a memorial using these icons and artifacts so people get an idea of what it was like," he said.
Scialdone never imagined that his contribution to art would have such a lasting effect on so many people. What began as a simple gesture of gratitude to the firemen has become a testament to the lives lost.
At the second anniversary of the attacks at Ground Zero, ArtAID ran out of the thousands of memorial angels and "Never Forget" images that they were distributing. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing the development of the site, recently requested 5,000 "Never Forget" prints on behalf of the families. It is an order ArtAID is working hard to fulfill, one of many sure to come in the near future.
"I'm hoping we never have another tragedy," Scialdone said. "So that we don't have to print anything ever again."
To make a donation or to get involved with ArtAID, visit www.ArtAID.org, or call Tony Scialdone or Jennifer Di Mauro at 516-223-8424.
