9/11 families tell of charitable work

The mother of a young man who died at the World Trade Center on 9/11 told of creating mental health clinics abroad in his memory to help victims of war and terror.

The father of a firefighter who died that day told of founding a visitors center at Ground Zero.

And the sister of a Cantor Fitzgerald executive, one of the 658 employees who perished, heads the firm's relief fund and told of helping to raise millions for victims' families.

They were on a panel Wednesday that spoke to Jericho High School students about how they turned grief and tragedy into good deeds and charitable work.

"If you have the passion to do something, you can change the world," said Liz Alderman, whose son Peter, 25, died while attending a meeting at the trade center.

The town-hall-style event kicked off a national campaign by MyGoodDeeds, a 9/11 nonprofit, and HandsOn Network, a volunteer service organization, to inspire teachers and students to perform charitable deeds on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

"One of our goals is to make this 10th anniversary into the nation's largest day of service in history," said Jay Winuk, a panelist who in 2003 co-founded MyGoodDeed, which was originally named One Day's Pay, and helped lobby in 2009 to have 9/11 declared a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

The event was filmed for a DVD that will be part of a free educational program at 911day.org.

"We thought the spirit of compassion and kindness and good deeds that was so natural immediately after the attacks was too valuable to waste," said Winuk, a Jericho high school alumnus whose brother Glenn, a volunteer EMT, was among school alums who died at the World Trade Center.

He said many were concerned that "9/11 would only be remembered for the attacks. If we don't also remember how good people stepped forward in response to the attacks then we've lost something."

Already, Winuk said, millions of people worldwide have performed good deeds each 9/11 and the group's website has had visitors from 165 nations and territories.

Also on the panel were Alderman, co-founder of the Peter C. Alderman Foundation; Edie Lutnick, who is Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund executive director, a MyGoodDeed board member and a Jericho alumna whose brother died on 9/11; Lee Ielpi, father of a 9/11 victim and Tribute WTC Visitor Center co-founder; Marie Clyne, a daughter of a 9/11 victim and Tuesday's Children college intern; and Joe Prisinzano, Jericho High School principal. Jericho Public Schools Superintendent Henry Grishman served as panel moderator.

The relatives suggested that 9/11 could be more meaningful if students learned about one victim and did charitable work in that person's memory.

Prisinzano asked students later what good work they would do on 9/11. One planned to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity, another pledged to donate food to a shelter, and another to spruce up the neighborhood.