Community Corner
Volunteers Rebuild 9/11 First Responder’s L.B. Home
New York Says Thank You shows gratitude each year before 9/11.
New York Says Thank You, a volunteer group with nationwide members, helped rebuild the Long Beach home of first responder NYPD officer Charlie Sadler and his wife, Gina, after it was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy.
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From Sept. 5 to 8, volunteers strapped on their tool belts to help rebuild 10 homes of 9/11 first responders and volunteers from Long Beach to the Rockaways to Staten Island.
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Just weeks after the Sadlers were married, Sandy struck and water came through their home’s floor like “a volcano,” Charlie said, and they have lived in an apartment ever since the October storm, according to News 12.
The volunteers who helped rebuild the Sadlers’ home travelled from Hawaii, Louisiana, Indiana and many other areas of the nation, according to the organization’s Facebook page.
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“It’s very humbling; it’s very different to be on this end,” Charlie said of having his storm-damaged home rebuilt.
New York Says Thank you was created in 2003 in an effort to show gratitude to the volunteers from across the nation who came to New York after the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. According to the organization’s website, www.NewYorkSaysThankYou.org:“Each year on the 9/11 Anniversary, The New York Says Thank You Foundation sends hundreds of volunteers from New York along with disaster survivors from around the country to help rebuild communities around the United States recovering from disaster. It’s our way of saying ‘Thank You’ for all the love and support Americans from across the country extended to New Yorkers in the days, weeks, and months following September 11.”
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