On Sept. 10, 2020, the PEACE club hosted presenter Pastor Diane Carter of the St. Paul’s United Church of Christ. Carter was a volunteer firefighter in Pleasantville, New York, during the attacks on Sept. 11.
After the attacks, Carter was a part of the rescue and relief efforts at Ground Zero. During the rescue and relief efforts, Carter helped clear debris, build multiple structures including one building to sift through the debris. That building was about 300 yards long.
The one thing Carter helped the most was working in the American Express Building working with supplies to help people sift through the debris.
One of the things Carter talked about the most was the hope and unity that followed after the attacks.
Pastor Diane Carter presenting her experience as a volunteer firefighter on 9/11. Photo by Trent Mast.
Carter said all the problems that were going on the day before the attacks did not matter after the attacks. People put aside their differences to come together.
Big companies would do what they could to help in the recovery and relief. The company Carhartt was donating coveralls for the firefighters and Maglight made specially engraved flashlights for the rescue and relief.
Not only did big companies help by donating but people came from all around to help. Some people did not even have anything to offer except for their support for those who died as well as those who were there to pick up and clean up.
“There were memorials all over the city,” said Carter, in her presentation. “The one in particular that stands out was on a fence that was just outside of the pile. The American flags stick out but everything else was letters, well wishes and flags from around the world of people and this went all the way around the building.”
Professional athletes were coming to help support as well, and when sports started back up the New York Yankees and the New York Mets played each other. The teams wore hats in support of firefighters and police who lost their lives inside during the attacks instead of wearing their uniform baseball caps.
Carter talked about all of these things to show how a tragedy can unify a whole group of people. In that time of need, people gave up their differences for the good of the whole, to support one another.
“When we come together as human beings,” said Carter, during her presentation. “Not just as Americans, but as human beings, we really find strength within all of us. When we stop looking at those differences and allowing them to divide us but rather look at them and realize the ways they can diversify us. There is great diversity in all that I’ve shown you tonight. In all of these different things, no one could have done all of these. The ones who made the pins, the one who made the logo, to the one who made the beanie babies, they probably couldn’t have drawn the spider-man comics. Maglight had a particular niche, as did Carhartt and Granger and everyone else. Everybody came and did what they could.”
President of the PEACE club Adam Shanaman said he asked Carter to speak because he has heard her speak as Carter as the pastor of his church and he knew she had a lot of good to say. Shanaman also talked about how people need to be unified with everything that has been going on within this past year.
“With everything that has gone on this year and everything that is still going on in the world it is really important for everyone to just come together and take a moment to be unified in remembrance of something terrible that happened to our country because as awful as it was, it did do a great job at bringing everybody together,” said Shanaman.
Carter really brought to light how working together and being there for each other creates an unbreakable bond and strong unity between everyone. She showed through her experiences and stories of being at Ground Zero after the attacks on Sept. 11, how people can come together and put aside their differences, whatever those maybe, in order to help everyone.
