By ERICA PITZI
PIX11.com
12:07 p.m. EDT, September 14, 2011
QUEENS, N.Y. (WPIX)— If one woman gets her way, there will be a ticker tape parade right along Broadway at the Canyon of Heros, for the first responders of 9/11.
The day would be May 25, 2012 -- marking 10 years after the last piece of steel was removed from Ground Zero.
"They didn't think about if they were going to live or die, they are the reason that area exists in the beautiful way it exists today," said Jill Singer.
This confident Queens woman committed to bringing the community together to show gratitude for the first responders.
Singer says the idea came to her while watching a Yankee game last month. She remembers attending the ticker tape parade when the Yanks won the World Series two years ago.
"They are called heros, 9/11 responders are called heros, why can't the city say thank you through a ticker tape parade?" asked Singer.
So she pitched her idea to Community Board 1 this week and it passed. World Trade Center Committee Chair Catherine McVay Hughes voted in favor.
"I've lived here for two decades, over looking other ticker tapes for sport championships," said Hughes. "But it's about time, we actually have a ticker tape parade for our real heros."
Real heros like TJ Gilmartin, Singer's boyfriend, whom she met last year, while fighting for first responders rights in Washington.
Gilmartin spent two straight weeks working on the rubble of the World Trace Center and welcomes the idea of a parade.
"It would lift the spirits. Nobody is asking for any money, just a thank you," said Gilmartin. "The greatest city in the world can't say thank you to the guys who ran in, meanwhile everybody else ran out?"
Mayor Michael Bloomberg still has to give his nod of approval, and NYPD has to approve a parade permit.
http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-911-ticker-tape-parade,0,5197099.story
No comments:
Post a Comment