'Everybody wanted to help'

Even now, 20 years later, Judy Cantwell gets emotional when she recalls the events of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. As the former executive director of the Hancock County Chapter of the American Red Cross, Cantwell spent three weeks in New York City to help in the aftermath of the tragedy. "That disaster touched me in ways that I've never thought I could feel," she said. The Findlay woman was in charge of the local Red Cross chapter from 1989 until her retirement in 2008. Cantwell estimated that she helped at more than 30 disaster sites across the country during her time with the organization. "I can remember all of my disasters and how some of them affected me, but this one of all that I've done is really in the forefront," she said. In the days following the attacks, thousands of Red Cross volunteers poured into the city to provide relief efforts. Linda Smith, another local Red Cross volunteer, was part of a third wave of volunteers to travel to New York. A mass care technician, Smith was on kitchen detail at Floyd Bennett Field, a former Navy Air Station located about 20 miles from the twin towers site. Cantwell was initially asked to go to the Pentagon right after the tragedy. However, she wasn't able to get away immediately because of all that was going on with local relief efforts. She said the day after the attacks, a slew of email and voice mail messages were waiting when she walked into her office. All of the dispatches were from people who wanted to help the victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. "Everybody wanted to help," she said. A community bloodmobile slated for later that week was completely booked within the span of a few hours. The Findlay community also raised $180,000 for relief efforts. When the Red Cross called back in early October, Cantwell was ready. She left Findlay on Oct. 4, 2001. "We were flying into New York City, and I was sitting by the window. And I said just to myself, and I said it too loud, 'Oh, the Statue of Liberty.' So everybody looks. And then in the blink of an eye, there were the ruins of ground zero, the fire, the smoke," she said. For the next three weeks, Cantwell worked eight- to 10-hour shifts, seven days a week on a hotline answering questions, providing information and offering referrals. She said the phones rang constantly in the makeshift center in Manhattan, about three blocks from ground zero. The assignment was something new for Cantwell, who normally worked in damage assessment at disaster sites. An emotional person, she wasn't sure she could do the job. "But they gave me a notebook; a three-ring binder with a table of contents. 'Any questions you've got, right here you can find it on page such and such,'" she recalled. She also was given a special card and was told to hold it up if she got a call she couldn't handle. "We did have mental health workers in the same room. There were probably 18-20 of us on this big hotline. And of course, every question you got wasn't in the notebook," she said. Cantwell said many of the cases she handled were from people who counted on the World Trade Center for their livelihood, including office workers, taxi drivers, restaurant workers, musicians and street vendors. Depending on their needs, victims received vouchers to pay for things like groceries, rent, utilities and prescription refills. Some calls were more difficult. Cantwell twice talked with people who were suicidal. One was a young man who had lost his fiancé, who was from South Africa. She worked in one of the towers, and her body had not been recovered. "He said, 'Her family wants to come and I don't have that kind of money. And they don't have that kind of money.' And he said, 'I just don't know if I can live through this. I mean, she was everything to me,'" Cantwell recalled. The International Committee of the Red Cross was able to bring seven of the woman's family members to New York City, she said. "For me, it really hit me hard. But it really made me feel good because of what the Red Cross was able to do. That's what we were there for, to do that kind of thing," she said. Cantwell credited her family and her faith with getting her through those days. Security was tight in the area. Ground zero was surrounded by a chain-link fence and guarded by police and National Guardsmen. Another barrier about 25 feet away was as close as Cantwell was permitted. She was allowed to hang a banner on that fence. Cantwell took two banners along with her signed with well wishes — one from Meijer that had been at the bloodmobile in Findlay, and another from Cory-Rawson Elementary School. She hung one at the Duane Street Fire House, which was the closest fire department to ground zero. The department didn't lose any personnel, she said, but it lost all of its equipment. The firefighters signed the banners which Cantwell brought home. One of them still hangs at the Red Cross office in Findlay. Cantwell said she did get one free day during the three weeks, and she visited the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, and rode on a double-decker bus. She also met figure skater Michelle Kwan while in the elevator of her hotel. "I thought she looked familiar, then it struck me who she was. And she says, 'Hi Judy.' And I said, 'Oh, my gosh. She knows my name,'" Cantwell recalled. (Kwan had actually seen Cantwell's name on the identification badge she was wearing.) Cantwell was asked to speak to groups about her experiences soon after returning to Findlay. She said the New Yorkers felt blessed that people from all over the world were coming to help them. "It was a terrible, terrible thing that the United States experienced. But there was so much good that came out of it, and it drew a country together like nothing in my lifetime. Our country at that time showed that we were the United States of America," she said.