While many attended vigils in remembrance to 9/11/2001, some who were directly affected from the devastating event took the time to give back and help those in need. Oyster Bay resident Liz Bice, who is the Director of Family Services for Tuesday’s Children, a 9/11 organization which provides events and programs to support friends and family members of those who died on 9/11, was one of the 35 people from New York who volunteered to travel to Texas to help rebuild a house that was destroyed by a tornado in December 2006.
The trip was a brainstorm of Jeff Parness who is the founder and board member of New York says Thank You Foundation (NYSTYF) is to send volunteers from New York City each year on the 9/11 Anniversary to help rebuild communities around the country affected by disasters. It is their way of commemorating the extraordinary love and generosity extended to New Yorkers by Americans from all across the United States in days, weeks and months following September 11th.
When Bice was asked to start an initiative at Tuesday’s Children called Tuesday’s Champions, which geared toward the support of rescue and recovery workers from Ground Zero, she found out about Jeff Parness and NYSTYF. Tuesday’s Children program Helping Heals that Bice explained, “People feel they heal the best by helping others.” She felt that having the Tuesday organizations participate with NYSTYF would be a great match. As she recalls, “It made perfect sense for TC to join the cause. We brought a few family members from Tuesday’s Children as well as a few rescue and recovery workers from Tuesday’s Champions as a pilot program this year. It was a remarkable transformation for every one of us who attended.”
The group traveled down to Groesback, Texas to help rebuild the home of James and Eva Vincent, which was ruined by a F3 tornado on December 29, 2006.
The Vincent’s are an extraordinary American family. Three generations of the Vincent family have run assisted living centers for disabled veterans out of their homes. They created a unique and loving environment where these men who served our nation could eat at the family’s dining room table, play with the children in the extended Vincent family, and enjoy the 100+ animals in a beautiful country setting. In addition to serving the disabled veterans, the Vincent’s also served their community as they comprise nearly one quarter of the 40 member volunteer fire department of Groesback, a town of just 4,000 people halfway between Dallas and Austin and just east of Waco.
The disaster destroyed one of the veterans’ homes and smashed the home where James and Eva lived with their 14 month son Hunter and 5 of the veterans. With just 30 seconds warning before the tornado struck, Eva woke Hunter from his crib and gathered the 5 veterans in her home and huddled them in a small inner hallway of the house. Sadly one of the men died in the tornado but Eva’s quick actions literally saved the lives of her young son and other men in her care.
As Bice recalled, “the crew arrived at 8am on September 7th to see a huge slab of concrete. We started putting up the frame of the house. Then before I knew it there were so many volunteers from around the county helping.” In addition to New York City firefighters and the volunteers for Tuesday’s Children and Champions, volunteers from around the country including survivors or Hurricane Katrina from Slidell, Louisiana and survivors of the 2003 San Diego wildfires, the 2004 Utica, Illinois and 2005 Evansville, Indiana tornadoes came to help.
The crew was there for four days. Within that Bice was amazed at how quickly the house went up. “We did the framing, then the trusses, and then started on the inside and it was all because of the volunteers. There were workers who were team leaders and the volunteers followed the team leaders,” she said. Habitat for Humanity was there and the inexperienced volunteers found themselves drawn to an organization because they are experienced in helping people who know nothing about construction.
This wasn’t “Extreme Home Makeover” though. Although the team had accomplished a lot in four days the house will not be livable until November. Hundreds of local volunteers from across East Central Texas and from Dallas, Waco and Austin will continue efforts of building the house for the Vincent family.
When building the house was the project at hand, those who participated got a lot more out of the experience. “It was amazing to see construction workers talking with family member, sharing stories that they have from 9/11. It was interesting to see the many points of view.” Bice pointed out, “America was being reintroduced to 9/11 through the voices of 9/11 construction workers and family members. A woman from Indiana who had lost her church was holding on to a woman who lost her husband during 9/11. It was the most heartfelt conversation for me to be privy to.”
The effects of 9/11 were prevalent, but it was not all bad. “The essence of America is generally the same. People are good. Most people want to help. Most of us were really affected by 9/11. It may be geographically different, but in our hearts the same, which was comforting for our family members and construction workers” added Bice.
Bice also stated that every person who represented Tuesday’s Children and Tuesday’s Champions have committed themselves to help again next year. Next year though Bice plans to expand the program out to more people. “We need to be aware that the needs of 9/11 families has not diminished, their needs have evolved. And we need to continue our programs for the families and rescue workers,” said Bice.
For more information, call (516) 562-9000 or visit: www.tuesdayschildren.org.
The trip was a brainstorm of Jeff Parness who is the founder and board member of New York says Thank You Foundation (NYSTYF) is to send volunteers from New York City each year on the 9/11 Anniversary to help rebuild communities around the country affected by disasters. It is their way of commemorating the extraordinary love and generosity extended to New Yorkers by Americans from all across the United States in days, weeks and months following September 11th.
When Bice was asked to start an initiative at Tuesday’s Children called Tuesday’s Champions, which geared toward the support of rescue and recovery workers from Ground Zero, she found out about Jeff Parness and NYSTYF. Tuesday’s Children program Helping Heals that Bice explained, “People feel they heal the best by helping others.” She felt that having the Tuesday organizations participate with NYSTYF would be a great match. As she recalls, “It made perfect sense for TC to join the cause. We brought a few family members from Tuesday’s Children as well as a few rescue and recovery workers from Tuesday’s Champions as a pilot program this year. It was a remarkable transformation for every one of us who attended.”
The group traveled down to Groesback, Texas to help rebuild the home of James and Eva Vincent, which was ruined by a F3 tornado on December 29, 2006.
The Vincent’s are an extraordinary American family. Three generations of the Vincent family have run assisted living centers for disabled veterans out of their homes. They created a unique and loving environment where these men who served our nation could eat at the family’s dining room table, play with the children in the extended Vincent family, and enjoy the 100+ animals in a beautiful country setting. In addition to serving the disabled veterans, the Vincent’s also served their community as they comprise nearly one quarter of the 40 member volunteer fire department of Groesback, a town of just 4,000 people halfway between Dallas and Austin and just east of Waco.
The disaster destroyed one of the veterans’ homes and smashed the home where James and Eva lived with their 14 month son Hunter and 5 of the veterans. With just 30 seconds warning before the tornado struck, Eva woke Hunter from his crib and gathered the 5 veterans in her home and huddled them in a small inner hallway of the house. Sadly one of the men died in the tornado but Eva’s quick actions literally saved the lives of her young son and other men in her care.
As Bice recalled, “the crew arrived at 8am on September 7th to see a huge slab of concrete. We started putting up the frame of the house. Then before I knew it there were so many volunteers from around the county helping.” In addition to New York City firefighters and the volunteers for Tuesday’s Children and Champions, volunteers from around the country including survivors or Hurricane Katrina from Slidell, Louisiana and survivors of the 2003 San Diego wildfires, the 2004 Utica, Illinois and 2005 Evansville, Indiana tornadoes came to help.
The crew was there for four days. Within that Bice was amazed at how quickly the house went up. “We did the framing, then the trusses, and then started on the inside and it was all because of the volunteers. There were workers who were team leaders and the volunteers followed the team leaders,” she said. Habitat for Humanity was there and the inexperienced volunteers found themselves drawn to an organization because they are experienced in helping people who know nothing about construction.
This wasn’t “Extreme Home Makeover” though. Although the team had accomplished a lot in four days the house will not be livable until November. Hundreds of local volunteers from across East Central Texas and from Dallas, Waco and Austin will continue efforts of building the house for the Vincent family.
When building the house was the project at hand, those who participated got a lot more out of the experience. “It was amazing to see construction workers talking with family member, sharing stories that they have from 9/11. It was interesting to see the many points of view.” Bice pointed out, “America was being reintroduced to 9/11 through the voices of 9/11 construction workers and family members. A woman from Indiana who had lost her church was holding on to a woman who lost her husband during 9/11. It was the most heartfelt conversation for me to be privy to.”
The effects of 9/11 were prevalent, but it was not all bad. “The essence of America is generally the same. People are good. Most people want to help. Most of us were really affected by 9/11. It may be geographically different, but in our hearts the same, which was comforting for our family members and construction workers” added Bice.
Bice also stated that every person who represented Tuesday’s Children and Tuesday’s Champions have committed themselves to help again next year. Next year though Bice plans to expand the program out to more people. “We need to be aware that the needs of 9/11 families has not diminished, their needs have evolved. And we need to continue our programs for the families and rescue workers,” said Bice.
For more information, call (516) 562-9000 or visit: www.tuesdayschildren.org.
-Faith Rackoff
reprinted from the 9/28/07 issue of the Oyster Bay Guardian
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