With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, the Mets yesterday announced a new partnership with Tuesday’s Children, an organization founded in 2001 in order to help families who lost relatives in the terror attacks.
The new initiative, the First Responder Alliance Mentoring Program, will provide mentors to children who lost their parents as a result of sicknesses while they were serving in the relief efforts at Ground Zero.
One of the main people behind this effort was Joseph Zadroga, who lost his son James, an NYPD detective, due to a respiratory illness in 2006. He had been preaching for years that many who had aided in the relief efforts at Ground Zero were contracting life-threatening diseases and illnesses.
Finally, this past January, President Obama signed the Zadroga Bill, which gave a $4.3 billion commitment to first responders still suffering from illnesses.
Zadroga, along with the developmental director of Tuesday’s Children, Amy Wright, FDNY Chief of Department Ed Kilduff, First Deputy Comissioner Calvin Drayton from the Office of Emergency Management, and First Deputy Rafael Pinero of the NYPD as well as Mets COO Jeff Wilpon were at the press conference.
“I can’t say enough about the Mets organization. They have supported us since the very beginning,” Wright said. “They have donated thousands of tickets to our organization, players have been nothing less than stunning with their contributions as well.”
Kilduff echoed those sentiments.
“Going back to 2001, Bobby Valentine and players were out in firehouses, sitting down and talking to the guys. They couldn’t have been more generous. It has been a commitment every year,” Kilduff said.
Many of the children on hand were not even teenagers yet, having only known one or more of their parents for a short time before losing them on or soon after 9-11.
With help from the Mets and their $10,000 contribution to start the First Responder Alliance Mentoring Program, more than 5,000 children will be matched with mentors, and maintain positive healthy relationships with adult-role models.
After batting practice before the Mets’ 7-3 loss to the Athletics, several Mets players, including R.A. Dickey and Jonathan Niese, met with the families on hand with Tuesday’s Children, the first of six visits this season. The team has done this every year since 2001.
They posed for pictures and signed autographs for everyone who wanted one, brightening the mood on the children’s faces, if only for a few moments.
“[The children] have had so much taken away, it’s nice to be able to see those guys smile,” Dickey said. “They have grown up without parents or family members that they lost and any positive reaction you can get out of them is a real blessing for guys who are going in there to sign.”