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Filling the void for the children of 9/11

BY COLLIN NASH | STAFF WRITER

September 9, 2005

Chris Burke and his brother, Tom, did almost everything together, even pursued the same career as government bond brokers for Cantor Fitzgerald.

Chris Burke switched careers in 2000, joining a Melville-based computer distributor. A year later, his brother, who worked on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower, perished in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The tragedy blanketed his brother's family - a wife and four boys all under age 10 at the time - in a cloud of despair, Burke said.

Seeing the upheaval and emotional backlash in the lives of his nephews, Burke realized that literally thousands of other children who lost parents in the attacks desperately needed help.

Two weeks after the attacks, Burke formed Tuesday's Children, a nonprofit organization that helps 9/11 children and their surviving parent focus on the future instead of dwelling on the past. "With four young nephews, it became painfully clear that the lives of thousands of others like them had been altered forever by the gaping hole left by the loss of a parent," Burke said. "I couldn't leave these kids out there on their own."

In Tuesday's Children, they found a much-needed friend.

In fact, the children have a network of friends who mentor, encourage and assist them in their educational and career pursuits and help create social outlets for them. More than 1,000 families in the metropolitan area have benefited from the multitude of organizations that have thrown their support behind the organization, Burke said.

The Mets, he said, are one of the group's biggest cheerleaders.

Over the past three years, the major league team has invited more than 50 youngsters to its preseason camp, Burke said. "They get to mingle with the players, who not only sign autographs but talk to them about their lives."

And this weekend, two Long Island families will join the team on its road trip to St. Louis to play the Cardinals.

Joan York, of Valley Stream, and three of her four children - Kristen, 18, Robert, 15, and Michael, 12 - and her sister, Ann Maser, will be one of the participating families. York's husband, Raymond, a firefighter with Engine Company 285 in Queens, died at the World Trade Center. "Our whole world was turned upside down," she said.

A die-hard Mets fan, she recalled how during a spring 2002 outing at Shea Stadium with other families in the group, the children got to meet some of the players. The interaction brought some of the youngsters out of their shells.

"I remember thinking it's been so long since I saw them smiling, having fun," she said. "For a long time there were heavy hearts around here."

Nancy Sadocha of Huntington Station can relate to that. Her husband, Frank, a food service manager, was conducting training on the 101st floor of the north tower when it fell. For a long time after the attacks, she and her two girls, Kristy, 8, and Ashley, 9, felt hopeless, she said.

Tuesday's Children has helped the family cope, said Sadocha, who also will join the Mets on their St. Louis trip with her children. "They said we have mentors, people who will help the children recover from the loss of their father. They went above and beyond."