Family's Request for 9/11 Benefits Stonewalled by Federal Government

Richard Pearlman's Family Fights to Correct Injustice

By Conor Greene

On 9/11, Richard Pearlman, an 18-year-old member of the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps, died while assisting fellow New Yorkers at the World Trade Center. He had been delivering legal papers to One Police Plaza when he heard the call for all first responders and was taken to the scene in an NYPD squad car. Despite his heroic efforts, which were chronicled in a photo in Newsweek magazine, his mother is still fighting for benefits due to her under a federal program.

“It’s a smack in the face,” said his mother, Dorie Pearlman. “Any information they asked for, I supplied them. It’s my government and they turned their back on me... I’m not just doing it in the name of my son, I’m doing it in the name of all the EMS workers who seemed to be shoved under the carpet.”

Years after her son was the youngest victim in the World Trade Center, a neighbor told Dorie, 54, about the Department of Justice’s Public Safety Officer Program, which was created in 1976 to provide benefits to families of Americans who are killed in the line of duty while protecting fellow citizens. She applied in March 2008 but was told the time limit had expired. She requested an extension and filed again the following month only to be informed in August 2009 that her application was denied.

In their denial, the feds claimed that Richard wasn’t certified to perform first responder services, even though he was certified by the Red Cross and was at the scene as a member of the ambulance corps, which is certified by the state Department of Health. "This isn't some fly by night organization," said Dorie. Much of her frustration is because it isn't even clear why her application was denied. "Various legal terms I don't understand," she said. "When I called they just referred me to a section of the law."

She approached several area politicians for help, including Rep. Anthony Weiner, who she ran into in September when the ambulance corps dedicated a wall at its headquarters in her son’s honor. In 2001, Weiner (D-Forest Hills) passed legislation that increased payments made by the federal government from $100,000 to $250,000 to help the families of first responders.

“On 9/11, my constituent joined hundred of other heroic first responders who selflessly rushed into the World Trade Center to save lives,” wrote Weiner in a letter to Hope Yankas, director of the program at the Justice Department. “Mr. Pearlman answered the call to help his fellow New Yorkers and made the ultimate sacrifice in the process. His mother should not be denied the benefits due to her.”

Weiner joined Richard's parents at the FHVAC headquarters on Monday to call attention to their plight. “Many in the neighborhood know the story of Richard,” said Weiner. “Clearly, this family is eligible under the law... It’s as simple as that – volunteers are included if supported by groups” such as the FHVAC.

However, Richard’s case is “unusual” since he was “a volunteer, urged to be there by law enforcement” after the call for first responders went out over the radio at One Police Plaza, said Weiner. Even so, the benefit program “is intended for people exactly like your son” and their families, he added.

“The money isn’t important - it’s justice. If I can’t get justice in his name, and for all the EMS workers, what good is the Justice Department? I’ll be the same person no matter what I get. I’m a mother who lost her son,” added Dorie. She recalls “waiting by the phone day and night.” His body was eventually found on Easter Sunday, 2002. In all, eight EMS workers died on 9/11.

While she harbors no resentment towards the police and fire department, she feels like EMS workers aren’t getting the same treatment. “If it were a police officer or firefighter, it would be no problem... I begrudge them nothing - they lost like everyone else. But it is the EMS workers getting shoved under the table,” she said.

Richard joined the FHVAC when he was 14 years old because it was the only department with a youth program, taking the bus to its Metropolitan Avenue headquarters from Howard Beach. “Day and night he was here - it didn’t matter what the weather was,” said his father, Barry, 57. He said his son been accepted to LaGuardia Community College at the time of his death and was licensed in first aid and CPR.

“He gave his life to help strangers. He never told them he couldn’t help because he was out of his jurisdiction...“This was his life - the ambulance corps and the Boy Scouts [in Middle Village] was my son’s life,” said Dorie. “He literally died for them, died to help people.”

Weiner hopes that some political and public pressure on the Justice Department will result in the feds releasing the benefit to the Pearlmans. “To me, this seems like an open and shut case, but up to now it’s been shut,” he said. “We’re hopeful that with an additional push, this benefit that is due to your family will finally arrive.”

Arborcide at Lefferts Playground

9-11 Memorial Trees Destroyed by Vandals

A plaque mounted just inside the gates of the Lefferts Playground in South Ozone Park was placed there to commemorate the grove of trees planted at the back of the park as a living memorial to the victims of 9-11.

In September 2003, the trees were dedicated and were intended to stand as a constant reminder of those who were murdered in the terrorist attacks. But this past weekend, just after the eight year anniversary of 9-11, vandals savagely destroyed the trees--bending, breaking and tearing the limbs off.

Donna Gilmartin, president of the Locust Grove Civic, says the surrounding community is heartbroken. “When you come to this beautiful park and see what has happened to these trees it leaves you with a feeling you can’t describe. This is not just about the senseless act—it is so much more about what these trees signify.” Gilmartin says she is exploring all avenues to replace the tress.

Last week, The Forum West reported on 12 trees that were also victims of arborcide in nearby Juniper Park in Middle Village. On September 13, sometime before 4 a.m., ten cherry trees and two oaks were cut down with a power saw. All of the trees were part of a new planting. This was the fourth time in one year that vandals struck trees in the popular park with more than 20 trees being victimized.

“Arborcide is a serious criminal offense and an assault on our communities, and the loss of 19 trees in Queens – 12 at Juniper Valley Park and seven at Lefferts Playground — is a blow to our quality of life and environmental health. Trees are a valuable asset, providing shade and oxygen, cleaning the air, and creating homes for wildlife,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski told The Forum that both incidents in Queens over the past two weeks are not typical of others involving arborcide or damage to trees. “We don’t see this on a scale like this. It’s very disheartening and very frustrating.” The commissioner said that the Parks Department had reached out for the local precinct and that she expected the police would assign personnel to the case.

Forum Publisher Patricia Adams has scheduled an appointment to meet with Commissioner Lewandowski to formalize plans to replace the trees. “The damage done to these trees is criminal but the destruction of the symbolism is unspeakable. Right now the most important thing is to replace them as soon as possible,” said Adams.

During their conversation Adams said she and the commissioner both expressed their hopes that someone in the community would step forward and offer information about the incident. “I hope that if someone knows who is responsible for this action that they would report it to the authorities,” stated the commissioner.

An appointment has been set for the upcoming weeks when Lewandowski, Adams and several community leaders presently forming a committee will meet to oversee the replacement of the trees. Further details will be released when available.

Honoring Richard Allen Pearlman: Remembering a 9/11 Hero

By Patricia Adams

September 11, 2001 is a day people recall vividly—without having to close their eyes. Most remember exactly what they were doing when they learned that Americans were under terrorist siege. And most can remember the sensation of paralysis that came over them when they felt the presence of terror in their midst.

But there were those people who had a unique reaction to the horror of 9/11. Upon learning of the events they rushed to the site of the attacks. They abandoned all sense of selfish reasoning and with no regard for obvious danger, they moved forward to help others whose might still be alive.

Richard Allen Pearlman was the youngest victim of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The Howard Beach resident was working for a law firm as a messenger and was delivering a package to One Police Plaza when he learned what was happening not far away. Pearlman immediately headed for the World Trade Center.

Upon arriving, the 18-year-old rushed into a building to aid in the rescue effort. Despite the chaos at the scene, Richard’s heroics were later confirmed by a Newsweek photo that shows him helping a woman covered in blood, but alive, from one of the towers. After getting her to safety, he ran back in to find more survivors. Shortly after, the towers came down. Richard Pearlman was on the missing list.

Last Friday night, eight years later, the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps held a ceremony, unveiling a wall created in honor of Richard Pearlman’s dedication to the department, his heroics on 9-11 and his achievement as a member of the corps.

Following a tearful invocation by corps member Michael Rizzo, Alan Wolfe, president of the Corps, was among the first to remember Pearlman at the ceremony. He described Richard as energetic - always excited to do his job. “One year ago today, I promised that we would create a wall in his honor,” said Wolfe. “Sometimes in the face of horrible tragedy, ordinary people do extraordinary things, now everyone who visits the Corps will be able to see what type of a hero Richard was.”

Chief Daniel Exler told attendees that he and Richard didn’t always see eye to eye. The chief joked with Pearlman parents, Dorie and Barry, about his disagreements with their son. But Exler turned serious as he shared what he saw as the real Richard Pearlman. “Richie could have lived anywhere, but he would have found his way to Forest Hills.”

And that sentiment was shared by everyone present who had words to say about the young hero of 9-11. Speaker after speaker associated an extraordinary dedication by Pearlman for his beloved ambulance corps.

At the end of the speeches the crowd was asked to move to the inside the building for the unveiling of the wall. Once assembled inside, with Pearlman’s parents standing by, a cord was pulled revealing the fruits of the effort put forth by the corps to honor their hero.

Photos, certificates and newspaper articles fill the space, telling the story of heroic action taken by Pearlman on 9-11.

Visitors filed by to view the wall as Pearlman’s mother looked on. When asked what the dedication meant to her, Dorie Pearlman told The Forum, “The corps and the Boy Scouts were everything to my son. They were his life,” said Dorie Pearlman. “This day means my son is not forgotten. It means he never will be forgotten.”

Eight Years After Terror Attacks, Statue of Liberty's Crown Reopens

By Conor Greene

For the first time since the 9/11 attacks, visitors to Liberty Island were allowed to make the 354-step climb to Lady Liberty’s crown this past Fourth of July.

While Liberty Island was reopened three months after the terrorist attacks, the statue itself remained closed to the public until 2004, when portions, including the statue’s pedestal and observation deck, were reopened. However, the crown remained closed, despite objections by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Forest Hills) and other officials.

Last summer, the National Parks Service finally issued a request for quotes on a security plan that would allow the crown to reopen. That document outlined a one-year timeline to prepare a report on how to provide safe, secure access to the crown – exactly what Weiner said he had requested NPS to prepare four years prior.

“July 4th represents a glorious day for Lady Liberty and her many visitors. She becomes the last national monument that was closed on 9/11 to reopen,” said Rep. Weiner. “A true symbol of American values again stands tall…An era of foot-dragging and excusemaking comes to an end.”

The crown’s reopening marks both a symbolic victory in the nation’s recovery from 9/11, and a “victory over the bureaucratic naysayers that have kept the crown closed for eight years,” said Weiner. “They said it shouldn’t be done and they said it couldn’t be done. For years, the American people and I have disagreed,” he said. “I am thrilled that this odd chapter in the history of the Statue of Liberty is closed. But it is hard not to ask: ‘What took them so long?’”

On Independence Day this past Saturday, events marking the crown’s reopening kicked off at about 8 a.m. on Liberty Island with a ceremony for seven military personnel who are among the nation’s newest citizens. “The idea of freedom is why I moved to this country, and this moment means more than I can even describe with words,” 26-year-old Sameh Zaki, aa native of Egypt, told the Daily News.

About an hour later, the first of the 240 lucky individuals who scored tickets to visit the crown on Saturday gathered at the base of the statue. Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony by officials including United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, New York Governor David Paterson, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Rep. Weiner, the first group of 30 began the long climb to the crown, which rises about 265 feet high.

“We are going to open up the crown to the people of America and to the people of the world,” said Salazar. In a statement released this week, Weiner recalled a vow made by Interior Secretary Gale Norton from the observation deck of the Hoover Dam on December 12, 2001. “Even though atrocities such as those of September 11 can affect us, they cannot close us down.”

The effort to having the crown reopened to the public picked up steam last August, when the National Parks Service awarded a contract to a Baltimore firm to conduct a emergency management study for the Statue of Liberty. This past January, newlynamed Interior Secretary Salazar toured the site with Weiner before announcing in May that the crown would reopen for this past Fourth of July.

First in line on Saturday morning was Barbara McLean, 56, of Atlanta. “Being able to look out from the crown is what this country is all about,” she told the Daily News.

And, while the statue is a symbol of the nation’s liberty, one could say that 26-year-old Aaron Weisinger of California said goodbye to his freedom after proposing to girlfriend Erica Bender inside the cramped crown. “I was beyond surprised,” Bender told the New York Times. “It’s the perfect place for both of us,” she added of the location, as both had relatives who immigrated to America through New York City.

Tickets to take the ferry to Liberty Island and tour the statue cost $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and $5 for children and are only available at statuecruises.com. Tickets for the next 12 months are currently on sale, but tours are sold out through mid-October. While those who cannot wait unit then should avoid purchasing a ticket on secondary markets such as E-bay or Craigslist (each ticket has a specific name printed on it), some spots could open up due to cancellations. Check the Website or call (877) 523-9849.

Parents Push for Overdue School Expansion

By Conor Greene

A group of parents are pushing for improvements at PS/IS 87 in Middle Village they say were promised years ago but never happened due to budget cuts after 9/11. Citing issues including a cramped cafeteria and lack of bathrooms, the group vowed to make noise until the school gets the attention from city officials they say it needs.

A half-dozen residents spoke at Tuesday’s Community Education Council 24 meeting in Maspeth in support for the addition. They argued that the school was changed from K-5to pre-K through 8th grades as a result of the planned expansion, and as a result the current building can’t handle the more than seven hundred students who attend PS/IS 87.

“We’ve been quiet these past five years and watched as all these other schools got expansions,” said Lucy Accardo, who has three children in PS/IS 87. “We just want to be kept in the limelight and will keep bringing up the issue at every meeting unit it happens.”

The parents stressed that their demands are modest. They want a new gymnasium since the current cafeteria only seats 140 students – forcing lunch to be served in stages beginning at 10:15 a.m. In addition, the cafeteria serves as a gym, even though its ceilings are just eight feet high. In addition, each floor has bathrooms containing just a single stall that must be shared by hundreds of students, according to the parents.

“It’s just not adequate for all those students,” said another parent, Margaret Kane. “We’re still where we started in 2000. It’s beyond us why we’re being overlooked.” She added that the bathroom situation is not healthy. “It’s not luxuries we’re looking for, it’s all necessities.”

Deputy Executive Director of Business Sandy Brawer of the Department of Education said he will bring the residents’ concerns back to department officials. However, he noted earlier in the evening that District 24 has received the most capital dollars and had the most additional seats added through construction of any district citywide. He also noted that all expansion projects were done in consultation with the CEC and community, at which point the issue of PS/IS 87 being overlooked could have been raised.

Nick Comaianni, president of CEC 24, said he agrees with the requests being made by the parents. “I feel it’s a shame” that the expansion never occurred, he said. “We’ve pushed it with the School Construction Authority and with Facilities, and it’s always the same thing.”

Laura Wittmer told the council that her son graduated from eighth grade this year. “I’m very sad to see that nothing too much was done for him,” adding that she is “angry” over the lack of upgrades at the 80th Street building. Her son, who is over six-feet tall, was forced to take gym classes in a room with eight-foot ceilings. “I just feel it’s unfair,” she said.

Finally, parent Jeanne Forster pointed out that the DOE’s Website still lists the school as being a K-5 facility. “That I think is one of our first concerns – the school needs to be reflected accurately on the Website,” she said. “It is very hard to change perceptions [so] right off the bat we are swimming upstream here… We’re talking about a pretty small extension.”

In a letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, the parents note that Mayor Michael Bloomberg deemed PS/IS 87 “a model for special education” after it became the first school in District 24 to convert to Pre-K to 8th grade facility. “How do you expect our school to compete with the other schools all several blocks away from us when they have extensions and we do not?” the parents questioned.

According to the letter, extensions were completed at PS 113, PS 128, PS 49 and MS 119 since funding for PS/IS 87 was cut. “Please do not mistake the fact that we have been quiet for the past five years as naivety or ignorance of what is going on around us,” the letter states. “We are well aware of the great injustice being doled out to our children. We would appreciate that this situation be rectified as soon as possible.”

Despite the parents' vows to keep pushing until the addition moves forward, the DOE said in a statement that no upgrades are planned for PS 87 in the coming years. The department "never committed to building an addition for PS 87," according to spokesman William Havemann. As a result of lobbying by former Councilman Dennis Gallagher, a science lab was constructed at the school, but that is the extend of upgrades planned for the facility.

"Given very limited resources... it is our responsibility to build a new school facility only when one is needed to meet enrollment demands," said Havemann. "While we're opening more than 3,000 school seats in District 24 over the next two years, we predict no need for an addition for PS 87."

Building Memories; Preserving 9/11

THE NATIONAL 9/11 MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM TAKES SHAPE

As the world remembers the seventh anniversary of 9/11, thousands will gather at a ceremony at two massive pools set within the footprints of the Twin Towers- with the largest man-made waterfalls in the country cascading down their sides. They will be a powerful reminder of the Twin Towers and of the unprecedented loss of life from an attack on our soil.

The names of the 2,980 who were killed in the September 11 attacks in New York City, Washington, DC, Pennsylvania, and the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing will be inscribed around the edge of the Memorial pools.

An eight-acre landscaped Memorial Plaza filled with more than 300 trees will create a contemplative space separate from the sights and sounds of the surrounding city. The design is unique in its use of ecological considerations which exceed sustainability standards.

As the Memorial Competition Jury explained its decision, "In its powerful, yet simple articulation of the footprints of the Twin Towers, "Reflecting Absence" has made the voids left by the destruction the primary symbols of our loss. It is a memorial that expresses both the incalculable loss of life and its consoling renewal, a place where all of us come together to remember from generation to generation."

Complementing the Memorial, a state-of-the art memorial will offer visitors an opportunity to deepen their experience at the site. The Museum will help facilitate an encounter with both the enormity of the loss and the triumph of the human spirit that are at the heart of 9/11.

Dynamic exhibitions including artifacts and personal effects; a resource center, contemplative areas, and innovative educational programming will convey responders, area residents, and witnesses.

The Museum, designed by Davis Brody Bond, LLP will have its primary exhibition space below ground. The Museum will be accessed through an entry pavilion designed by Snøhetta. As visitors descend below the Memorial voids, they will see the slurry wall - the wall that held back the Hudson River when the Towers collapsed - and other remaining structures at the foundation of the site where the tallest buildings in the world, a triumph of human ingenuity and aspiration once stood.

The remaining eight acres of the site will include the Freedom Tower, three other grand WTC Towers, retail development, the WTC Transportation Hub and a Performing Arts Center. The site also includes significant underground infrastructure, including PATH tracks, a chiller plant and other mechanical spaces.

Howard Beach Says Good-Bye to Favorite Son

Community Mourns the Loss of 9/11 Hero

by Patricia Adams

A big strapping guy he was. And as big of a heart went with the bulk of the man named “Buck” by his firefighter brothers for his cooking ability, and “The Rock” by his family for the dedication and strength he had for them.

Kevin Delano passed away on Wednesday July 30th after a battle with leukemia; the disease most believe was brought on due to the time he spent at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Delano was one of the first to arrive at the scene after the buildings collapsed and worked for 40 hours; continuously searching the rubble for any survivors. He wore very little protective gear and never gave a second thought to the potential health risks he was taking by being there amidst the toxic rubble. But that was Kevin Delano—concerned with saving lives not with his own safety.

The career he was so devoted to began in 1971, as soon as he was eligible to join the West Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department. He worked his way up and was later named Chief of the department. While serving in his volunteer role at West Hamilton, Kevin worked as a member of the US Coast Guard.

After four years with the Coast Guard, Kevin became a federal firefighter and was stationed at Governors Island. There he stayed for the next eleven years when the opportunity came to become an officer for the New York City Transit Police. It was from that position that Kevin Delano waited for the job he had always wanted—to be one of New York’s Bravest.

It was not quite two years later when Kevin Delano’s dream came true. Kevin was “on the job”, starting in Brooklyn at Ladder 146 and then transferred to Ladder 142 in Ozone Park, where he was closer to home. In 1980, Kevin married sweetheart Roseann Panhurst on August 16 at Our Lady of Grace in Howard Beach.

Four years later the couple welcomed their son Kevin Michael Jr. into the world. Of course Kevin took the same type of an active and dedicated role in raising his son as he did with his job and his family. He went on to coach his son at the Ozone Howard Little League. Always an avid sports fan, he spent much of his spare time teaching his son and nephews how to play ball.

Kevin Delano was retired by the New York City Fire Department and moved with his family from Hamilton Beach to the Poconos in Pennsylvania. It was a frustrating time for the fireman who could no longer do what he wanted to do. He was a firefighter who while assigned to the 142 in Ozone Park also put in 40 to 60 hours a week volunteering. Volunteering, he once said, was all about the “feeling you get when you know you have helped someone”.

Delano was an avid golfer and found his enjoyment in the Poconos by golfing regularly, spending time in his pool and sport fishing. But his relaxation and peace was to meet with an unexpected obstacle—after being rushed to a hospital, Delano was diagnosed with leukemia. He battled the disease, experienced a successful remission but was struck again when it returned.

Approximately seven months ago, doctors told Kevin Delano his only hope was a bone marrow transplant. One of his sisters, Patti Fogarty, was a perfect match and acted as a donor. His sister’s stem cells gave Kevin Delano seven more months to live but two weeks ago he was airlifted to Penn State Hospital in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Kevin Delano spent his last two weeks surrounded by family and friends. He was 54 years old and is survived by his wife Roseann; his son Kevin Michael, Jr. (Half-A-Buck); his mother-in-law, brothers: Raymond and Ger- ard and his sisters: Barbara Jean, Loretta, Patti, Cathy, Maureen, Jeananne and Vicky and more than 35 nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Monday, August 4th in Our Lady of Grace Church in Howard Beach. The ceremonial farewell to a beloved brother and friend to the community was marked by the presence of a full honor guard, bagpipes and fire department funeral procession. The procession drove past the West Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department before heading out for the burial at St. Charles Cemetery in Farmingdale.

The city of New York has refused to acknowledge the link to Kevin’s death as a result of his heroic actions on 9/11. As a result the family has incurred the tremendous financial burden of medical expenses during Kevin’s battle.

The West Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department will be accepting donations which can be made to Roseann Delano and sent to the West Hamilton Beach Volunteer Fire Department and Ambulance Corps at Post Office Box 77, Howard Beach, New York 11414.

Above: Hundreds of firefighters, family members and community residents bid farewell to retired Firefighter Kevin Delano who lost his battle with leukemia last week. At left: Kevin Delano stands proud in his dress uniform.

The Forum Newsgroup/top photo by PATRICIA ADAMS. Left photo courtesy of NICK BENEDUCE