More than 700 runners gathered outside Wantagh High School on Sept. 20 for the third annual Wantagh Warrior 9/11 Memorial 5K, turning a wet Saturday morning into a communitywide remembrance.
The race, which raises money for Sept. 11 education initiatives in the Wantagh School District, began shortly after 9 a.m. on Beltagh Avenue, wound through neighborhood streets and finished on the high school track, amid a steady rain. The event also included a kids’ fun run, with younger competitors sprinting a lap around the track.
Before the race began, the Nassau County Police Department Pipe and Drum Band performed, Wantagh High sophomore Giada Petrillo sang the national anthem and Assistant Principal Christopher Widmann, chair of the district’s 9/11 committee, welcomed runners and guests.
Widmann also read the names of Wantagh residents and graduates of the high school who died on Sept. 11, 2001, or from illnesses related to the attacks.
For Wantagh resident Susan Sliwak, the ceremony carried deeply personal meaning. Sliwak sounded the cannon to start the race, 25 years after her husband, Robert F. Sliwak, was killed while working at Cantor Fitzgerald in the World Trade Center.
“I felt very honored to do that,” Sliwak said. “Again, it's just another moment to remember all of those people that were lost on that day that just went to work, did their job.”
Sliwak said that Wantagh High Principal Paul Guzzone called her son, Kyle, and asked whether his mother would participate in the race’s opening. Kyle immediately agreed on her behalf.
Robert Sliwak, a member of the nearby Seaford high school’s class of 1977, was a co-captain of the 1976 Nassau County championship football team and an All-County athlete. He later worked as a bond broker, and settled with Susan in Wantagh, where they planned to raise a family.
He was the father of Ryan and twins Kyle and Nicole, and according to his obituary, took particular pride in his role as a dad. His family and friends remembered him as gentle, easygoing and someone who made people feel at ease. Sliwak said her husband also had a tendency to see the good in people.
“He was probably one of the most genuine human beings we could actually name,” she said. “He always saw the good in people or always understood that there was probably a story behind something that they did that they shouldn't have done or acted the way they acted. He was just a really good soul.”
That sense of remembrance was especially significant this year, Sliwak said, as more runners who took part in the race were too young to have any firsthand memory of the attacks.
Sliwak said she appreciated the district’s effort to make sure younger generations understand what happened and remember those who were lost.
“I love the fact that Paul is making sure that people don't forget,” she said of Guzzone, “especially I just feel like in the world we're living in right now, it's great to have people like him running events like this and getting the young people from the school out to actually join and understand what it's all about.”
Money the 5K raises helped fund the district’s new 9/11 memorial in front of the high school, as well as an annual student trip to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan, student scholarships and teacher grants.
The race and the district’s other 9/11 efforts, Guzzone said, are intended to ensure that the memory of the attacks remains part of the education of future generations.
“There’s not only a shared belief, but a shared purpose of responsibility to ensure every child who walks our halls not only understands the tragedy of 9/11, but even more importantly, knows that evil didn’t triumph, humanity did,” Guzzone said.
Retired FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro, the event’s keynote speaker, also addressed the runners. Nigro was appointed chief of department following the death of Chief Peter J. Ganci Jr. on Sept. 11, and oversaw rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the attacks.
“A lot of expressions came out of 9/11,” Nigro said. “One that hits me when the names are read, ‘All gave some, and some gave all,’ so today we’re honoring those that gave all.”
Oscar Lorenzo, of Amityville, was the first runner to cross the finish line of the 5-K, in 16 minutes, 29 seconds. Wantagh’s top finisher was 16-year-old Alex Diegnan, who placed fourth overall with a time of 17:52. Julie Hong, of Wantagh, was the first female finisher, in 22:37.
For Sliwak and others, however, the significance of the morning wasn’t measured by finish times. It was another opportunity for a community — and a new generation of runners — to remember the people who never made it home.
