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Firemen's Benefit
Our Sincere Thanks to
The following report by CCG volunteer Adam Honigman originally appeared on the ACGA and cybergardens listserves on September 25, 2001.Friends, Last Saturday evening, between 6-9pm, the Clinton Community Garden ran a benefit for three local Hell's Kitchen firehouses conjunction with ONE4, a local club band with a very big heart. These fine musicians, who had originally planned a small neighborhood concert in our garden before the World Trade Center disaster, donated their services and created the soundtrack for an outstanding event. We cannot thank them enough. All funds raised went directly to the firemen's widows and orphans. I'm pleased that with your help, the Clinton Community Garden was able to raise a respectable amount for each of the tree firehouses. We love these guys, and with the lousy wiring in many of our tenement buildings, many of us in the neighborhood are alive today because of now departed firemen who shared their oxygen masks with us. Our Hell's Kitchen Firehouses are: Rescue 1 on West 43rd Street, Engine 54, Ladder 4, 9th Battalion on West 48th Street and 8th Avenue (the house that I wrote to you about) Ladder 21, 7th Battalion on West 38th Street. Between all three houses, 38 are officially counted among the dead and missing. Annie Chadwick, our garden chairperson, whom many of you know for her outstanding work on the Parks 2001 campaign and as a lecturer on herbs, coordinated the event which quickly morphed into an event where US Congressman Jerrold Nadler, City Councilperson Christine Quinn and NY State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (friends of community gardens all) spoke and gave the event a considerable amount of gravitas. Our speakers included a psychologist who works with the survivors of state terrorism in Central America, the daughter of Mr. Klinghoffer, the wheelchair bound grandfather who was killed in the Achille Lauro hijacking during the early 80's and neighborhood friends. The garden, still blooming with perennials, mums, dahlias, a beehive filled with honey and the lush green fullness of harvest time was wall-to-wall with candle-holding gardeners, neighborhood residents and well wishing friends from all over. This memorial had to be the largest sized event that we've ever hosted and the least difficult to manage. We must have had at least 500 people here, holding candles. City Councilperson Quinn really set the tone for the event when said, "It's wonderful when folks show up right after a tragedy like this, but it's maintaining the support three months, a year after that really is needed. When I stopped by Engine 54 to offer whatever assistance my office could provide, the lieutenant took me aside and asked how, I was feeling and what he could do to help me. He was seriously concerned at what the enormity of the week had done to a member of the city council, entrusted to help keep things going. Now, my father is a retired fireman, it's just the way they are, being there for us...always. I'm glad we're all here for our firemen tonight. We just have to continue doing that, saying thank you, being there for them and their families." We were honored, during the course of the concert to have volunteer firemen from all over the country speak to us (Sacramento, Northern Virginia - when D.C. said it was OK, they flew up to work the bucket brigade search, Boston and others). A relative of one of the volunteers lives on the garden block. Bone tired from moving rock and sorting remains, they washed up and showed. We had some German and Japanese media crews in the house (bigger events were elsewhere and the NY media was covering them, rightfully so) who showed our best face to the world. The highlights of the evening: We were visited by trucks from all three houses, who received cheers from all of us that you must have heard all over New York and the country. Each time, it was like Muhammad Ali, at the peak of his career walking into the ring. Our heroes, our family. Words cannot express what we all felt, the cheers, and the dead silence when any of the firemen came up to the mike to speak. Follow-up: The Clinton Community Garden is committed to deepening our relationships with all three organizations, i.e. visits when all the parades stop 3 months, 6 months, a year from now, when it's even more important that the grieving know that there are folks who care. A sharing of a pie, garden honey and fresh grown garden produce with a visit are neighborly under ordinary circumstances - under present conditions, simple gestures like these are even more helpful. All of the firemen are being given garden keys with the understanding that our garden is now their backyard away from home (most live out of the Clinton Community Garden's immediate neighborhood.) Who better to welcome into our garden community? Best wishes, Adam Honigman | |||||||||||||||||
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Clinton Community Garden, P.O. Box 214, New York, NY 10108-0214 |
On Sept. 22, 2001 Clinton Community Garden
along with Us3 sponsored Hell's Kitchen Fire Heroes Benefit Concert
where we raised $6,000 for the 38 lost firefighters' families from our
Hell's Kitchen Fire Houses. We visited our 3 Fire Houses
(Rescue 1 on West 43rd Street; Engine 54, Ladder 4, 9th
Battalion on West 48th Street at 8th Avenue & Engine 34, Engine
26, Ladder 21, 7th Battalion on West 38th Street) to give them each a
check for $2,000, a key to the garden and a jar of Hell's Kitchen Honey
from our Fall garden beehive harvest. This event was so meaningful
to the firefighters and the community that we have decided to make it an
annual Hell's Kitchen picnic to honor our local firefighters &
policemen on the Fall Equinox.
