Lew Evangelidis

Worcester County Sheriff

"On 9/11, I happened to be at my church in Holden dropping my daughter off at pre-school when I heard that the first plane had hit the Tower in New York City. Working as an Attorney,  I then arrived at the Courthouse in downtown Worcester when I heard the second Tower was hit and it was clear our country was under attack. I remember thinking of the kids I just left at the pre-school and how their world would never be the same again."

Sarai Rivera

District 4 City Councilor

"I remember it like yesterday. I had just come off a third shift at the ER. I was so exhausted I couldn't wait to go to bed. I saw my son to school and as my other son settled with daddy I went to bed.

I was finally getting into a deep sleep when my phone rang. It was my sister telling me that something happened at the New York Twin Towers and to turn on the news. I will admit that I was very groggy and a bit disoriented - I turned on the TV and laid back down, not really understanding what was happening.

No sooner does my head hit the pillow that Rhondell comes to my mind. I quickly am in shock and get up calling her name. I grab my phone to call but the circuits are busy and I can't get through. I try her hotel but there is no answer. I begin to pray that somehow Rhondell is safe. 

She was my friend my sister in faith. She had just been in Worcester to play for my ordination ceremony (She was a musician and praise leader). 

She was in NY because of work and was planning to come that weekend to join us in celebrating my son's 5th birthday (his birthday is on 9/11).

My heart sank. I began to call her family and friends in Bermuda. My spiritual leaders were her pastors and they were also beyond worried that they could not reach her. 

Flights were all shut down so the closest thing she had to family was us. We called the hotel, but she was not there. We kept calling her phone, but no answer. We were now left with the decisions to make on what to do. We took her picture made some flyers packed a bag and headed to New York to find our Rhondell. 

The few days we spent in NY during this time was some of most heart wrenching I have ever experienced.  From trying to track her where whereabouts, to searching hospitals, morgues, handing out flyers, and setting up to collect her DNA. The people I met, the smell of smoke, the anguish in a fathers voice that cried out for his son.  So many memories and the heart ache of having to come back without our Rhondell - having to tell her family everyday that we had not found her. We hoped, we prayed but in the end we had to let go."
 

Brian O'Connell

School Committee Member

"I suspect that all of us who were old enough to be aware of current events in 2001 recall exactly where we were when we first heard of the attack on the "Twin Towers" of the World Trade Center.

I was driving down Interstate Route 495 to a meeting in the Brockton area, and I was approaching the Wrentham exit when a news bulletin announced the first attack. That was followed by further announcements regarding the second impact on the World Trade Center, then on the Pentagon, then a report on a mysterious plane crash in Western Pennsylvania that appeared to be related somehow.

The combined feeling of shock, of distress for the thousands of innocent individuals
targeted, and of concern for the source, motive and cause underlying the events is unlike anything I have felt before or since.

Only in the hours that followed did the true personal toll of the tragedy become apparent -present or former Worcester residents I knew on one of the planes or in the World Trade Center, several fellow alumni of Holy Cross who were working that day in the WTC, their husbands, wives, parents  and young children whose
families had been devastated by a sudden and unimaginable loss.

To this day, I frequently walk past a memorial at Holy Cross dedicated to alumni lost in that tragedy, and each time I do so I recall vividly the day that our world
changed so traumatically for so many of us."

Erin Arvizu

Owner of Wild Orchid Baby

"I had just started my freshman year at Framingham State. It was a Tuesday and I didn't have any classes that day so I slept in. When I got up, I started talking to my friend Peter on AIM. He said something like "did you see what happened in New York? Turn on the news!" I turned on the TV and saw the devastating news. My roommate came back a few minutes later because all classes had been cancelled. The RA's held a floor meeting and we talked about the attacks. It was scary. We all worried about what else might happen. Everybody called their families to confirm they were safe."

Nick D'Andrea

School Committee Candidate

"I was getting ready for a customer meeting and turned on "The Today Show". The first plane had already and was thinking "What pilot could not see that plane?" no sooner than I thought that I watched the second plane hit.  My phone and pager immediately start going off.  The rest of the morning was chaotic, as it was for everyone else.  It became real when sitting in my car listening to the coverage as the second tower came down and late news anchor Peter Jennings said, 'The Twin Towers are no more'."

Deborah Gonzalez

Director of Community Bridges at Quinisgamond Community College

"I was at the hall way of the UMASS Amherst Department of Spanish and Portuguese writing a chapter of my Doctoral Dissertation.  I heard commotion in the hallway and  I came upon a group of fellow graduate student’s  that looked distressed and told me what just happened. I walked back to the house were my oldest daughter, at the time 4 months old, was being babysat . I watch the horrific event on T.V. holding my baby in my arms the whole time.  It was surreal.  I felt a sense of emptiness and disbelief as I watched the T.V. broadcast, playing the scenes over and over throughout the rest of the day. Today, my daughter is in first year of H.S. but I still remember exactly what she looked like and what she was wearing that day.  I hope there will be a safe world if she decides to have her own children someday."

Gary Vecchio

Shrewsbury Street Neighborhood Association President

"I can never forget where I was and my feelings on 9/11. I was at home that day, because my mother had passed away the day before, and my family was preparing for her wake that evening.

I got a call that morning from my good friend, Vincent Pedone, to inform me of what was going on in our nation. It took a while to really sink in, because I was dealing with my own personal grief. It was not until I turned on the TV about an hour after that call, that it started to dawn on me the seriousness of what had happened.

My own personal lose will forever be a part of my remembrance of 9/11. Unlike most people, I was not able to really focus on the national tragedy until after my mother's funeral on Sept. 12, 2001. My family and I experienced both a personal and a national lose 14 years ago."

John Giangregorio

Canal District Association President

"I was on a golf course in Hampden County with my father and two friends when the shocking unbelievable news reached us. All have since passed leaving me with that numbing feeling of that event and of their loss.:

David LeBouef

Director of Initiative for Engaged Citizenship

"I was in the 6th grade at Heard Street Discovery Academy. The school never told us what occurred and instead sent us home with a note asking our parents to explain to us the day's events. I remember my teacher at the time went home "sick". We later learned that her daughter was in one of the towers during the attack- luckily she survived."

Senator Michael Moore

(D-Millbury)

“I will never forget the tragic events that surrounded that cloudless Tuesday morning fourteen years ago. At the time, I was an Environmental Police Officer and President of the Environmental Police Officers Union headed to a meeting in Taunton.  En route, I was requested to head immediately to the Westborough Field Office to attend to a longtime colleague and friend, whose wife was later confirmed to be aboard one of the flights from Logan.  Her heroic efforts aboard the plane that day helped to convey critical information about the five hijackers and their fatal actions– a statewide civilian bravery award has since been established in her name.”

Hilda Ramirez

School Committee Member

"I was interviewing a candidate for a position at the John Hancock Observatory.  I was informed that our building was being evacuated because of the planes flying into the World Trade Center.  I was on the 60th floor of the Hancock Tower and opened the blinds thinking it was in Boston.  I evacuated visitors from our floor and left to register for my last course at Harvard. There I stopped to understand the complexity of the incident.

I later went home to call my family in New York.  We learned that one of my cousins was missing and she worked near World Trade Center. Hours later we found out she was stuck in the train station and was injured from people running and escaping the area.  A scary moment in our lives, but blessed to have her with us."

John Monfredo

School Committee Member

"I was principal at Belmont Community School and found out when parents came into the building and then a group of parents  were in our school library staying close to the television set to hear what was going on. It was shocking news for everyone to think that this could happen in our country."

Molly McCullough

School Committee Candidate

"On 9/11/2001, I had just begun my junior year at UMass. I didn't have class until 11 on Tuesdays/Thursdays so I was still in my off-campus apartment. My roommate Melissa, came into my room, jumped on my bed and turned on the TV. We began watching the news coverage and listening to the reporters speculate as to what may have happened and suddenly the second plane hit. Our friends began coming into our apartment, as they had been sent home from campus. We sat glued to our TV, phones in hand, for the remainder of the day. My mother called me and asked me if I could keep trying to call my brother, who had just started his freshman year at Fordham in NY.

I remember being unsure as to how close Fordham was to the World Trade Center and becoming increasingly anxious each time I heard "All circuits are busy." on my high-tech, Nokia cell phone. I was finally able to get through to him and he let me know that he was ok but that many of his classmates were panicking because they had parents or other family members who worked in the towers. When I got back through to my mom she was relieved to know he was ok but then very calmly said to me "We think Tara was on one of the planes." I remember snapping back and saying "Well you either know or you don't; you can't just think she was.".

Of course, she did know. She was simply trying to tell me in the best way she could. Tara Creamer was a family friend and someone I looked up to. She was kind, fun, beautiful -both inside and out- had a lovely young family, a job she loved and was a UMass grad. Tara left her home that day not knowing that it would be for the last time. Of course, this was the case for all the other innocent people who lost their lives that day. So many lives lost in such a senseless and destructive way, an entire nation struggling to understand why and how. As a nation we came together as a united front and we will always remember those who lost their lives that day."

Kate Toomey

At-Large City Councilor

"I had a meeting with the former Worcester Vocational School Principal, Tony Prendergast.  I walked into his office, and he and office staff were in front of the TV, watching the unfathomable unfold before our eyes. As things like this happen, word of local connections and loss started coming in through the day. Close to me at the time, was Tara Creamer.  Her husband, brother-in-law, father-in-law, etc. were all Worcester Teachers.  She had a smile that could light up a room.  She was a beautiful wife, mother and daughter.  I had a colleague, Joff Smith, who had friends who were killed that day. I don't know anyone who didn't have a connection to someone who was killed, or affected by the fallout.

It was a day that for many, the world stopped spinning."