VIDEO: Boy Scout Troop Restores 9/11 Memorial in Brooklyn Park
SHEEPSHEAD BAY — Giancarlo Rodriguez wasn’t alive to see the Twin Towers fall, but he’s watched that moment replay countless times in his father’s eyes.
“Those who died travel with us, their memories, their ideas, their legacies,” he said.
That’s why the 15-year-old St. Edmund’s Prep sophomore chose to restore the Bedford 9/11 Memorial on the handball court at Bill Brown Park for his Eagle Scout service project. His dad Carlos, a former Sanitation police officer, is his troop’s Scout Master assistant.
“I thought it would be a really good idea to remember the ones who lost their lives during 9/11,” Rodriguez said.
Carlos conducted search and rescue efforts in the days immediately following 9/11 and then was moved to do security at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island where debris from ground zero was sent. Today he suffers from short term memory loss, emphysema, sleep apnea, GERD and joint pain.
“I remember it every day and every day it’s still in my head. No matter what,” Carlos Rodriguez said.
He, like so many others still carries the physical toll of that day.
RELATED: Too Young to Remember Attacks, Breezy Point Kids Visit 9/11 Victims’ Families in Queens
For Giancarlo, his dad’s experience is educational.
“I’m very proud of him. I was very touched,” he said. “He told me, ‘I’m doing it for the victims. And also because of you.'”
Angela Sabino, a St. Edmund’s parishioner and a member of the Bedford Park 9/11 Memorial Committee, says each brush stroke is a renewed promise to never forget.
“It’s about the souls that died that day. And now, of course, all these years later, there’s so many more people who have passed away from the injuries that they sustained. And there are families out there that have no cemetery to go to. And that’s the purpose of what we do,” Sabino said.
And this year at the committee’s annual 9/11 memorial the mural which was started before the sun had set on Sept. 11, 2001 — will look like new.
“When Giancarlo said we would like to upgrade the wall, it was like a sign from God himself,” Sabino said.
There are more than 400 names on the wall — a few who have died from 9/11 illnesses have been added in recent years.
RELATED: Queens Street Named After 9/11 FDNY Hero Gets New Sign
“They weren’t afraid of the lasting effects. They still went to save. They still went to clean up,” Giancarlo Rodriguez said.
Filling the cracks with paint will fill a void in history for newer generations. But since Carlos Rodriguez got sick — every day is 9/11.