By Nick Buglione
Directly behind their sewing stations, a magnificent mass of red, white and blue cloth sprawled out across the floor--a nearly completed 40-foot-wide, 26-foot-long American flag quilt made in memory of the thousands that died on Sept. 11.
"We wanted to do something to commemorate the victims so that their names wouldn't be lost," said Alex Nunez, den leader of Cub Scouts Pack 233 in Westbury and coordinator of the quilt project. "I liked the idea of doing something with the American flag, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I thought that maybe a quilt would be good."
After launching the project last November, Nunez said he hopes to have it finished by this Sept. 11.
"We decided to hold this quilt-a-thon because it's getting closer to the anniversary, and we want to meet our goal," he said. "Though it was started by the Cub Scouts, we always intended that we would be involving a lot of the community in the project."
So on Saturday, Aug. 24 about 25 volunteers, four from East Meadow, headed to the Asbury Avenue-based church determined to complete the quilt they had already put so much time and effort into.
"We're going to have it done, and it's going to be magnificent," said East Meadow Public Library employee Connie Stanga, as she concentrated on her sewing. "We felt something had to be done to show we haven't forgotten."
Stanga was joined by fellow East Meadow residents Kathy Lanzaro, Mary Broderick and Dorothy McGowen.
According to Nunez, the East Meadow Public Library has supported the project and has played an integral role in the shaping of the quilt. "They must have done easily 500 patches," he said. "They did a great job there."
The library also put the quilt, though unfinished at the time, on display last April to help Nunez drum up publicity for the project.
Nunez said, however, that the library wasn't the only place he found overwhelming support. After soliciting donations of patches for the quilt through the Internet and through contacting other Cub, Boy and Girl Scout troops in other states, thousands of hand-made masterpieces came pouring in.
"It started out as a community project, but word got out," Nunez said. "We've gotten patches from 15 different states and some from British Columbia in Canada as well."
The quilt, a giant American flag, comprises about 3,300 patches, each representing victims of Sept. 11, mostly from the World Trade Center. The blue area holding the flag's stars is dedicated specifically to all uniformed personnel lost in the attack.
The patches, however, are more than just cloth with an embroidered name. Many of the people that worked on them did research on the victim they were memorializing and included a personal aspect of that person's life--whether it was a nickname or a logotype from a favorite sports team.
In the case of a patch dedicated to Todd Beamer, one of the heroes on United Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania, the now-famous phrase "let's roll" was sewn in.
After its completion, the quilt will be unveiled at Shea Stadium before the 7:10 p.m. start of a New York Mets game on Saturday, Sept. 21.
"It will be unveiled on the field during the national anthem. We still haven't worked out where they will be, whether its centerfield or the infield," said Kirk King, a representative from the New York Mets that's coordinating the event.
The game will be aired on WPIX Channel 11. The team will also be giving out "I Love NY" T-shirts to all paid entrants.
"I think the kids will really get a thrill being out on the field," said Ray Muntz, Cub master of Pack 233. The pack has about 30 members, ages 10 and under.
The quilt's next stop will be The Mall at the Source, 1504 Old Country Road in Westbury, where it will be on display from Oct. 1 through 31. A special dedication ceremony will take place in the mall's main court on Oct. 14 at 9:30 a.m.
Nunez, who has stored the quilt in his Westbury home, is searching for a permanent home for it.
"Several buildings down near ground zero have expressed an interest, but their lobbies aren't big enough for it," he said.
For more information, contact Nunez at (516) 984-7617.
