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Ornaments honor WTC victims By Matt Smith Ottaway News Service msottaway@aol.com Albany – Peter Freund sat on a folding chair inside the State Capitol's ceremonial Red Room, twirling a small American flag between his 9-year-old hands. Gov. George Pataki had just finished telling him how much his father – who was killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack – was loved. "We love him, the whole state loves him," Pataki told the boy. "We will not ever forget him." Peter Freund made sure of that yesterday. Shortly after listening to the governor, the Minisink Valley Intermediate School pupil walked over to the giant Christmas tree inside the Red Room, and hung an ornament he made in memory of his father on it. "It makes me feel good that these people are not going to be forgotten," said Robin Freund, the boy's mother. "It gives me strength." Forty-five-year-old Lt. Peter Freund was thinking about leaving the Fire Department of New York to become a schoolteacher. But instead of making it to the classroom, the father of three was killed amid the rubble of the World Trade Center. "It's a very tough time of the year for all of us," Robin Freund said. "We're taking it a day at a time." The ornament hung in memory of her husband yesterday was one of 850 received at the Capitol from schoolchildren across the state. The governor asked students last month to make the ornaments in memory of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11. Yesterday, those ornaments were unveiled in a Capitol tree-trimming ceremony, where Pataki was joined by 31 schoolchildren. And not only was Peter Freund one of those children, so was Minisink Valley Intermediate School pupil Britany Rivera of Westtown, who lost her mother, Carmen, in the attack, and Therese Stark from St. John's School in Goshen, who lost her firefighter uncle, Jeffrey Stark. "We're very proud of you for your courage," Pataki told Britany Rivera, as she stood next to him holding the ornament she designed. "This isn't really about our courage," Britany's father, Luis Rivera, said later. "My wife is the one who had the courage. She could have gotten out (of the Trade Center), but instead, she stayed behind to help her co-workers out of the building." Luis Rivera was married to Carmen, who worked at Fiduciary Trust, for 15 years. They had three children. "We take it day by day," Rivera said, when asked how his family was doing. "But (Carmen) lives on through us – through myself, and our children." Meanwhile, from across the Red Room, Joseph Stark Sr. smiled as he watched his daughter, Therese, having her photograph taken in front of the Christmas tree. "He was just a great guy," Stark said of his 30-year-old brother. "What can I say? Thirty years old ... . Things will never be the same."
Copyright 2001 Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., all rights reserved. |
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