By Laura Lane Mervosh
Living 30 miles from ground zero, many East Meadow residents know of people who lost their lives on Sept. 11 or, in some way, have been affected by the attack.
However, it has been difficult for them to become directly involved in providing anything but money for the relief effort.
Some members from Cadettes Troop 1266 found a way to contribute their time and energies to the ongoing effort, though. The Woodland and Clarke Middle School girls recently reached out to a fellow Cadeete from Illinois and, in doing so, became part of a project that has put many smiles on the faces of ground-zero rescue workers.
The highest honor Cadette Girl Scouts (in seventh through ninth grades) can earn is the Silver Award. An Illinois Cadette, 13-year-old Michelle Kidd, was unsure about her Silver Award project until Sept. 11.
Deeply touched by the tragedy in New York, and living so far away, she decided to start a campaign called HEARTS (Helping Every American Recover Together Through Solidarity) across America.
In Illinois, she organized Girl Scouts to write thank-you notes to the rescue workers, and attached her own red, white and blue handmade ribbons to the notes. She, however, soon found that people other than Girl Scouts were also sending along cards and notes. Running out of ribbon, she went to her local Michaels arts and crafts store.
Michaels decided to join Kidd by providing a free project countrywide for children to take part in by making ribbons identical to Kidd's creation and cards for the rescue workers. The store promised to mail everything to Kidd in Illinois, who by now had decided to personally deliver the sentiments to the rescue workers in New York. Sandy Messina, troop co-leader for the East Meadow Cadettes, found out about the event at her local Michaels store. At Kidd's Web site, she discovered that Kidd was herself a Cadette pursuing a Silver Award. Messina wrote
to Debbie Kidd, Michele's mother, to offer her assistance.
"I e-mailed Debbie, who is also a Cadette troop leader, and told her that if she planned on coming to New York to deliver the cards and pins to the rescue workers that she would need help," Messina said. "New York is expensive. I offered for her to stay at our house and told her that members of my Cadette troop would act as a tour guide for her and Michele."
Members of Cadette Troop 1266 arrived at a hotel in
New York City(Hilton Hotels provided free lodging for the Kidds) on Feb. 9 to help the Kidds find their way around Manhattan.
Michele had collected more than 35,000 cards, which she now carried in a rolling suitcase. Nino's Restaurant on Canal Street in NYC (the recently closed eatery that offered free food to rescue workers) had invited her in, and so she made it the first stop on her whirlwind tour.
At Nino's, the East Meadow girls helped Kidd hang a banner created by an Illinois school and placed one of the thank-you cards on each of the tables.
"The rescue workers and Nino himself were all touched
by what this little girl had done," Messina said. "They wanted to get their picture taken with her, and all wanted to wear the pins on their uniforms."
Messina said that the girls spoke to the rescue workers at length. All agreed that they had received many cards, which they appreciated, but that it meant even more to them that the girls had come by personally to deliver the cards. They were also impressed that the Kidds had come from so far away. Stacey Rosenberg, Megan Messina, Nicole Tamney, and younger sister Allison (from Junior Troop 1310) were all surprised when several female police officers came over to speak to them about Girl Scouts.
"They said that they were former Girl Scouts," Messina said. "The policewomen said that they remembered Girl Scouts as being a sisterhood."
Leaving Nino's, the girls continued their tour. Michele had really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but the famous tourist sites had been closed since Sept. 11. Learning of her wish, the New York City Police Department made Michele's dream a reality.
Meeting all the girls at Pier 17, they took them in a
patrol boat around the famous monuments. The last stop was a marina behind ground zero, where the girls were brought to a memorial.
"There were posters there and photos of fire fighters, and patches [from uniforms] that rescue workers had left behind," Messina said. "The patches were from all over the United States."
Messina found a photograph Tommy DeAngelis of East Meadow. The missing New York City Fire Department battalion chief was one of the first to respond after the first plane hit the north tower. Messina said that she was happy to be able to find the photograph of DeAngelis, because Michele was already wearing the "Tommy: Miracle in our Life" pin that had been donated to Tommy DeAngelis' wife by a Georgia artist.
The girls next went to the platform at the site. Ground zero is now seven stories below street level.
"I thought of how many times I had seen the Twin Towers and how I had just thought of them as two office buildings," Messina said. "Now there was this gigantic space. The girls felt an overwhelming sense of sadness."
However, the girls continued to pass the cards out to
the rescue works that used the platform to enter the site.
Co-leader JoAnn Tamney said that she was surprised to see that ground zero now looked like a construction site and was amazed by the enormity of the hole. But she admits that she was even more taken aback by St. Michaels Church, the haven for the rescue workers that stands next to ground zero.
"The church looked like it sustained no damage,"
Tamney said. "The kids and I were amazed that even the
cemetery behind it had headstones that were intact."
Only Michele and Debbie were permitted to deliver the
cards in St. Michaels. The other Girl Scouts continued
to hand out thank-you notes outside the church to rescue workers.
"It was great to see how appreciative the rescue
workers were to receive the cards and pin," Tamney said. "My kids were so happy to be a part of this. Living so far away, the event had a distancing effect on them, but being there was such a great reality for them."
Megan Messina is planning a project to achieve her
Silver Award. If her idea is approved, she would like to collect used cell phones and donate them to the Domestic Violence Shelters.
"I feel like I'll work on mine a lot harder now after
seeing what Michele did with her Silver Award project," Megan said.
Nicole Tamney was also impressed by Michele's work and plans to put a great deal of effort into collecting new baby items for the Westbury House as her Silver Award project.
Tamney said that her daughter Nicole was impressed by
how Michele was able to touch so many people. "This is
what Girl Scouts is all about."
