Actor Gary Sinise bonds with Wantagh High School over teaching kids 9/11 history

Madison Rodriguez, 17, grew up hearing the stories of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Her mother worked in the complex and her father, a sanitation worker, helped search for survivors at Ground Zero for a year. 

But it wasn’t until she visited the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum on a trip funded by the Gary Sinise Foundation that the Wantagh senior felt the gravity of the event that no classroom lesson could provide. 

"When we’re in the classroom we can hear some of our teachers give their anecdotes from 9/11 and we'll see the videos and the curriculum that they show," Rodriguez said. "But actually going and seeing the reflecting pools and feeling the serenity of the environment, seeing people pass it on their daily commutes, or people stopping to say hello to their loved ones, that hits differently more than any classroom curriculum really can."

Now the Gary Sinise Foundation, which sponsored the first trip to the museum three years ago, is partnering with Wantagh High School on a new project designed to bring home the significance of 9/11. Sinise's foundation has donated $50,000 to help fund a 9/11 monument to be placed in front of Wantagh High School ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

The foundation, Nassau County and other sponsors plan to build a 16-foot-wide pentagon base and nearly 9-foot-tall $170,000 steel replica of the World Trade Center in front of the high school. The monument will include the names of the dozen Wantagh residents who were killed in the terrorist attacks.

The connection between the school and Sinise was forged through a foundation volunteer from Wantagh. Initially, Sinise and his foundation took Wantagh students on trips to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, pairing them with WWII veterans. That blossomed into taking students to the 9/11 museum and in August, a planned trip to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to see the field where United Flight 93 crashed.

"We want our young people who were not born at that time to know the significance of that event and how the country came together," Sinise said in an exclusive interview with Newsday. "Many of them, of course, have heard about what happened. They may have seen some of the footage on television. We want to provide opportunities for as many schools as possible, but Wantagh has made a specific effort to make sure that those students never forget."

Wantagh High School Principal Paul Guzzone said the school has worked with Sinise to help remember those lost and incorporate real experiences in teaching the history of Sept. 11, especially to those in the school community not born before the attacks. 

"Ten years ago, none of my teachers needed lesson plans. They experienced 9/11 and were teaching from memory," Guzzone said. "We have a handful, and every year more teachers, that don't have those memories, those experiences. I think we believe it's our duty to ensure that we keep these memories alive, that we never forget, and provide support to our teachers to provide that experience."

Wantagh senior James DiCerbo, 18, said his mother worked next to the Twin Towers and he grew up learning about the attacks but going to the museum helped him fully understand the sacrifice of first responders.

“You really had time to just reflect upon the lives of people who were lost that day,” DiCerbo said. “It was really surreal, and it taught to me [how in] times of crisis, how people really risk their safety to comfort people and save other people and it was really powerful.”

Guzzone, teachers and volunteers hold an annual 5K race to help fund trips to the museum for students each year. The race has raised more than $150,000, officials said. Thursday night, the foundation will also donate $3,500 in college scholarships to Wantagh High School students.

Sinise said he is working with the 9/11 museum to expand education by preserving the oral history with video recordings of first responders to Ground Zero. The foundation and Wantagh High School are also looking to partner first responders with students.

"What does 'never forget' really mean?" Sinise said. "After that event, 25 years ago, everyone was saying that and we want to put that into action ... to preserve those memories and those stories, so that future generations really understand ... what can happen, and then look at the response afterward."