2010 Guardian Angel Awards

Guardian Angels are special beings that watch over us, protect us and help us in many ways. In our organization we have had several people who have helped us continue our scholarship fund in many special ways This year we are honoring 2 individuals who will join the “Guardian Angel” family. They are humble, knowledgeable and have supported us since day one. These two individuals have made sure that the lessons of September 11, 2001 are passed on to the students of District 30 Queens and hopefully through their efforts will be passed on to other school districts in NYC as well. 

We are honored to call them our friends. We thank them for their support and we are so grateful to them for helping us make sure that the books that were written for students will be in the schools. 

Our first recipient is Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. He read the books and decided that all the schools in District 30 should have these books in their libraries. He secured the money necessary and made this happen. Because of his efforts “The Day the Towers Fell,” “My Son Christopher” and “We Remember” are in the school libraries of District 30. All of the profits from sales of “The Day the Towers Fell” and “My Son Christopher” books go back to the Firefighter Christopher Santora Educational Scholarship Fund so that we can offer more scholarships and gifts to schools. All of the profits from the “We Remember” books go to the NYC Firefighter Brotherhood Foundation which helps those rescue workers who are now so very ill because they did the right thing and helped at Ground Zero. Without Peter’s help we would not have these books in the libraries. Thank you, Councilman, for standing with us and getting the message out that hatred must be eliminated and instead love and tolerance must be substituted. We love you.

Our second recipient is Maria Dapontes Dougherty. Maria also made sure that the message of these books got into the schools. She and Councilman Vallone spoke and decided that this must get into the hands of students. Maria has spent most of her life being an advocate for students and schools in NYC. Her hard work paid off for us and we are so very grateful for her love support and affection. Both she and the Councilman spoke about the books and made sure that District 30 received them. Students must know about what hatred did to all of us. We now have a generation of students who only know the story of September 11, 2001 through the eyes of others. We must make sure that students learn what meanness, bullying, unkind behavior can do. We must make sure that we learn lessons from September 11 and impart these lessons to our students and youth. Thank you Maria for standing with us and helping us. We love you.