By Marla Diamond CBS New York
Volunteers at St. Paul’s Church prepare care packages for soldiers on Nov. 11, 2013. (credit: Marla Diamond/WCBS 880)
A group of volunteers who lost a spouse or parent on 9/11 spent Veterans Day at St. Paul’s Church in lower Manhattan preparing care packages to send to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the recent widows of servicemen.One of the volunteers was Michelle Dominguez, whose father, Carlos, worked for Marsh & McLennan on the 95th floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower.
“I was only nine months old when he died,” she told WCBS 880’s Marla Diamond. “But I’ve heard a lot of things about him, and he’s really close to my heart.” Michelle decorated a paper bag Monday “that they’re going to fill with necessities for the soldiers.”
“She did have school, but we thought that this was an important day,” said her mother, Maureen, “and it also… would have been her dad’s birthday, so we wanted to do something nice to honor him as well.”
Susan Biatini [sic – Beatini], of Park Ridge, N.J., whose husband, Paul, was killed in the World Trade Center, was also among the volunteers. She wrote a letter to soldiers.
“I promised that [they] would laugh again and that they would be happy again,” she said. “I think it is amazing. I am so privileged to feel that I can help them.”
