Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

Peter wants to share this link with you

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Loca...9-11-tragedy/1

Comments: Though you may like this about our part in 9/11, the 10th anniversary in this week. There is a typo, it says 3,000 people & 27 planes, but Gander alone got around 7,000 people, looks like this is St. John's numbers, Gander got over 30 planes. We Newfies are taking up collections this week all over the province to sent to the USA to contribute to scholarship funds for the children of those who lost their lives on that fateful day. Blessings, Bro. Pete



The above link and comments are from Bro. Peter Wells, who lives in St. John's Newfoundland. I met him and his sweet wife, Iva, on AFF in 2008.
He posted about his miracle of healing and grace on AFF. He gave his testimony at our church in Texas, the first week of August 2011. So inspiring.
For those who may not have read his testimony in 2008, here is the link.

http://www.apostolicfriendsforum.com...ad.php?t=20497

Bro. Peter Wells is on Facebook under Peter Wells. To see Bro. Peter, full of
energy and life, you would never know he was born with such a disability.


Falla39

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/newss...9-11-01-a.html

Bro. Peter Wells told me the story of how when Pres. Bush had the planes grounded
after 9/11, the town of Gander there in Newfoundland showed hospitality to the Americans.
Google Gander, Newfoundland and you will see many links and some YouTubes giving the story.
Tom Brokaw did a NBC story entitled, "The Day The World Came To Town".

See what Snopes. com says about Gander. Take a gander.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/...d-came-to-town

I wonder how many knew about this kindness to the Americans stranded in Newfoundland after the 9/11 attack and Bush grounded the planes. Very interesting!

Falla39

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

http://www.ganderairport.com/911.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/tv/story...foundland.html

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

Just received this e-mail from Bro. Peter Wells, our friends in Newfoundland. Some from
their family have come to Texas each year, since 2009. He and Iva, his sweet wife, came the first of August, 2011

Hi Sis Falla,
Wonderful link, it's an emotional anniversary for us here, more so than anywhere else in Canada. It's hard to believe that out of such tragedy so much good came from it. There was a baby born, a young couple met, fell in love and eventually married, strong friendships were forged, it's know as the day the American's came to Newfoundland by many people. We just did what we know how to do. It wasn't anything new to us, we have been helping Americans in trouble since the start of WW2. I sent you several links on shipwrecks during the war, and the book I gave you tells many stories. We have a close attachment to your wonderful country, we always will. We even accpet American currency, I don't think any other province does this, we just know and love our cousins south of the border.
As more stories come out in the local paper I'll send them along.
Have a wonderful evening in Jesus Name.
Love & Blessings
Bro. Pete

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

Bro. Pete, Did you see the thread on AFF?

Yes, I saw the entire thread, wonderful. I hope it encourages others and lets them see how great our GOD truly is. HE even sent all those Americans in the sky who were blocked from their own county to a place where they would be looked after with love and kindness. They could have been sent to Quebec where everyone speaks french, or to Ontario where people are so cold. HE sent them here because HE knew all those people who were so lost and did not know what was happening to a place where they would be loved, respected, helped and understood.

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

It was really nothing, it's what we Newfoundlanders do and have always done, it's just our nature, nothing more. During WW2 when several American ships went down in our waters, people risked their lives to save the sailors from the stormy seas, housed them and comforted them. When an American military plane went down some years ago just outside Gander, those folks were there too. Planes also landed in St. John's and about 3,000 Americans were looked after there as well. We are used to tragedy and hard times, so it is ingrained in us to just do what needs to be done, at whatever cost (we don't look at that). Being an island in the North Atlantic we are somewhat isolated from the new attitude of "me first" that is overcoming the world around us, we think of "you" first and always.

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

Bro. Peter Wells,
I want to take this opportunity to thank you and your people for the wonderful
hospitality to America during the time following 9/11. Like many others, I just didn't
know of this kindness shown to our country during this time of national crisis. Yes, it
is something and I, for one, am grateful for the part Newfoundland played during that
time. I just didn't know about it until you personally told me. God bless you and God
bless Newfoundland, in Jesus Name!

Blessings,
Falla39

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

Another 9/11 Gander story by The Associated Press

In unlikely place, the human face of 9/11
By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press – 10 hours ago
GANDER, Newfoundland (AP) — To hear something nice about 9/11, talk to "the plane people," the passengers who wound up on the island of Newfoundland that day because U.S. airspace was shut.

Talk to Laura Louie about the overwhelming kindness she and her two small daughters experienced in this distant corner of Canada, briefly transformed by a twist of history into an international aviation hub.

"We were completely taken care of," she remembers. "For everyone else, 9/11 has a heavy connotation. But for me it was when I was reminded what humanity is."

Or listen to Monica Burke, a 44-year-old emergency dispatcher from Seattle: "Our whole world was in chaos. We didn't even know where we were except that we were in some weird time zone in Canada. I didn't know when I was getting home, but these people basically put their lives on hold. I mean, their kids couldn't go to school because we were using the schools as shelters.

"Bus drivers came off strike to drive us. Pharmacists came to the shelters and said 'What do you need?' and nobody asked for money. It's pretty incredible that they were able to respond like that, especially with short notice."

Ten years later, that huge, comforting hug of Gander, Newfoundland still warms the memories of the 6,600 passengers who descended without warning on the town of 10,000. Many of them have made deep friendships with the islanders who cared for them, and some will travel here for the 10th anniversary commemorations.

Across a distance of 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) from the Pacific to Atlantic, Monica Burke has stayed in regular phone and email contact with Beulah Cooper, the woman who opened her home to her as the horror of 9/11 sank in. She visited her on the first anniversary, and is returning for the 10th.

Cooper, now 70, keeps a large collection of thank-you letters from the many people she helped in different ways.

Among those she comforted are Dennis and Hannah O'Rourke, an elderly couple whose New York firefighter son, Kevin, went missing at the World Trade Center.

He died. The O'Rourkes have remained friends with Cooper and have been back to Gander, whose people Hannah O'Rourke feels eternally indebted to. "They are so full of love and kindness and they can't do enough for you," she said. "I'll never forget it. Beulah was a mother figure."

Of the hundreds of flights blocked that day, more than 200 were diverted to Canada, with no warning, recalls David Collenette, transport minister.

"They shut down U.S. airspace, period, and we had to pick up the pieces. I don't fault them for that. It was an absolute tragedy," Collenette told The Associated Press. "There was no request. We were informed that the United States had closed its airspace to all incoming traffic, all planes were grounded in the United States, and that any planes flying into the U.S. airspace would be shot down. Frankly it was as brutal as that."

He said that despite intelligence reports about more airborne terrorists possibly approaching, he had to let the aircraft in, or else they might attempt unauthorized landings or crash into the Atlantic. "As it was, we landed 33,000 people in a matter of a few hours."

Norman Mineta, then U.S. transportation secretary, had a different recollection of the day.

"After I closed U.S. airspace I realized that we've got these planes coming in from Europe and Asia and I then called David and I said 'Hey David, we need your help,'" Mineta said, asking Collenete if Canada could take the incoming planes.

"He put me on hold and within a minute or so he said, 'We'll take them all,'" Mineta told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Mineta said he was surprised that Collenette didn't mention their conversation to the AP, but added that Canada "did a great service" for the U.S. that day.

The Canadians shunted the traffic away from Toronto and Montreal to the eastern seaboard, and obscure, little used Gander got to relive its glory days as a stopover point for trans-Atlantic aviation before long-distance flights became possible. Built in 1938 in anticipation of the coming world war, it had the world's longest runway, and on 9/11 it was the second busiest, taking in 38 flights to Halifax, Nova Scotia's 47.

Flight crews quickly filled Gander's hotels, so passengers were taken to schools, fire stations, church halls. The Canadian military flew in 5,000 cots. Stores donated blankets, coffee machines, barbecue grills. Unable to retrieve their luggage, passengers became dependent on the kindness of strangers, and it came in the shape of clothes, showers, toys, banks of phones to call home free of charge, an arena that became a giant walk-in fridge full of donated food.

Once all the planes had landed or turned back to Europe, Gander's air traffic controllers switched to cooking meals in the building nonstop for three days.

"We went from air traffic controllers to cooks and cleaners of pots and pans," said Dan O'Brien, a supervisor with Nav Canada, the civil air navigation service, who brought passengers home to shower.

Doug Dillon switched from controlling traffic to delivering medical prescriptions to passengers in need. His father, Des, led the efforts for the Canadian Red Cross and his brother and mother, joined in the efforts to make the guests comfortable.

So did neighboring communities such as Gambo and Lewisporte.

"It still makes me cry when I think about it. They were incredible," said Barbara Groh-Wahlstrom, who stayed with the Salvation Army in Gambo and met her future husband there. "They had people working in the kitchen 24 hours a day and it turned out to be for five days. We were 187 passengers and they fed us three meals a day. They celebrated us like we were five-star guests. They were so full of love."

Diane Kirschke, a Texan, met Nick Marson, an Englishman. They married, and honeymooned in Newfoundland on the first anniversary of 9/11.

Louie, who is 46 and now married to actor Woody Harrelson, remembered a family across the street who saw her daughters aged 5 and 8, and invited them into their home, let them play for two hours, and offered them a change of clothes.

"I couldn't believe it," she said by phone. "I mean, we live in Hawaii where aloha is pretty present, but I felt so much aloha there, so welcoming, so trusting."

Des Dillon, Gander Mayor Claude Elliott, Beulah Cooper are among those being honored in Washington, D.C. at a ceremony on Thursday. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will attend and President Obama has been invited.

A piece of a steel beam from the former World Trade Center, donated by the Bethpage Volunteer Fire Department on Long Island, will be unveiled in Gander on Sept. 11.

One of the Americans coming back is Shirley Brooks-Jones. She was so overwhelmed by the experience of 2001 that as her plane left Gander, she told her fellow passengers over the cabin address system that she wanted to set up a scholarship fund for students in Lewisporte, where they stayed.

The Lewisporte area Flight 15 scholarship fund is now worth close to $1.5 million and has put 134 students through school. Brooks-Jones has been back 20 times, to present the scholarships every June and to attend each anniversary.

"Since nobody would take any money from us there we wanted to do something so that those people there would never forget what they had done for us," she said by phone from Dublin, Ohio. "They just put their lives on hold to take care of the plane people."

AP Researcher Monika Mathur contributed to this report from New York.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

Very interesting!

Re: Friendship From 9/11 Tragedy
 

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Loca...t%26rsquo%3B/1

To those who didn't know the "good" that happened in spite of the 9/11 time of crisis, you owe it to yourself to educate yourself concerning this. We heard all about the "tragic part", and it was SO tragic, but how many knew about the good
that happened in the midst and after the tragic part. Should we overlook that!

Falla39