POINT THANK YOU ON HERO HIGHWAY
NEW YORKERS GIVE THANKS
January - May 2002

The people at Point Thank You experienced a dramatic change in the tone of the West Side Highway once it was reopened to regular city traffic in late 2001. For the first few months following the disaster only service vehicles were permitted to travel south while northbound lanes were available for traffic leaving downtown. The numbers of rescue workers, police, fire and site recovery personnel became somewhat lost in the flow of cars passing the corner. Some people moved on to other centers of assistance, while new faces began to appear, waving flags and shouting thanks.

"New Yorkers of the Week"
on
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Among the people seen regularly at Point Thank You were John, a retired postal worker from Staten Island, who makes the three hour (round trip) journey everyday to let those still working at the WTC site know they are not forgotten. Lenore, a teacher from Scranton PA, travels down to New York every weekend. Bridget and James, a couple from Long Island City, join Gail, Fred, Deirdre, Clare, Diane and others on the corner most every night. As they put it,"We're staying here until it's finished. People drive by and shout that it's over and tell us to move on, but we know it's not over. The workers stop here all the time to tell us how much it means to know that someone is still concerned about them."

Sam, an iron worker from Florida, came to New York to work at Groung Zero and found the experience of being there everyday so upsetting that he would come and join the people at Point Thank You to give himself some positive memories to take home. He said the people there balanced out the trauma of dealing with the excavation and recovery. There was an office worker who stopped at the corner one day to tell of his buddy who was killed in the Trade Center. Every day he has to drive down the West Side Highway and see that the towers are gone, reminding him of the overwhelming loss. It breaks his heart but when he sees someone standing at the corner, waving a flag or holding a sign, he says it's like my friend isn't gone or at least it doesn't hurt quite so much. It gives him hope.

The people at Point Thank You don't limit the kindness and concern to just giving thanks. They also spread love and some down home cooking. Bridget, Jim and Carol recently visited four Manhattan firehouses armed with gift buckets full of cooking supplies (condiments, spices, ground coffee, biscuit mix, etc.). It was really well-received and plans are in the works to visit more stations with more volunteers.

4th and 5th grade students from PS 3 near Point Thank you have been coming to the corner every Thursday. They've also been corresponding with another school in West Virginia. The class in West Viginia made special thank you signs for the pupils to take to the corner. One Thursday, Secret Service agents stopped to say hello to the class and gave them all NYPD badges and one extra to send to the teacher in West Virginia. One positive outcome from such a tragic event is all the connections and friendships that have been formed since September 11th.

Thanks to Barry for these great photos. Keep up the good work!

Badges given to Suzannah B. Troy by appreciative workers at the corner. Visit Suzannah's web site to see her inspirational artwork. She also has a piece in the Art for America Auction .

Recent photos from Scott.

Sunset at the corner.

With the finishing of the work at Ground Zero,
the work for the people at Point Thank You also comes to an end.
But...
they will continue to be the positive, contributing
and helping individuals they've shown us all
they really are. THANK YOU!

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site editor: Joel Alden Kingston

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