Bluesky 07
Senior Member
A FB friend posted the remarkable story of how the passengers and crew of Delta Flight 15 paid forward the kindness they were shown after their plane diverted to Gander due to the 9/11 attacks. A passenger started a fund to send the high schoolers of Lewisporte, the nearby town that hosted them, to college. So far, the over $1.5 million collected has benefited over 130 students.
I thought I'd share that, and the following, since we can all use a break now and then from the doom and gloom of today's news cycle, and people often appreciate learning about inspiring things they may not have known.
About 10,000 people live in Gander, and there were about 550 hotel rooms in 2001. When US airspace closed on 9/11, 39 international flights, carrying over 6,500 passengers and crew, diverted there.
Edited to add correct pic - I mistakenly used a pic of Halifax International Airport, which also received many diversions on 9/11. This is the correct pic, showing Gander International Airport on 9/11:
The people of Gander responded by opening their churches, schools, hospitals, and even their homes to the strangers of many nationalities, faiths, races, and backgrounds that tragedy had brought to their community. I highly recommend the book The Day the World Came to Town, which tells the incredible story of the town's response in the aftermath of 9/11.
The pic on the cover is the moving "Silent Witnesses" Memorial on the banks of Gander Lake, which the townspeople placed in memory of the horrific 1985 Arrow Air crash that killed 8 crew members and 248 brave soldiers of the US 101st Airborne Division who were returning from a peacekeeping mission abroad.
The children are holding olive branches in recognition of the peacekeeping mission, and the statues are even oriented such that the soldier is looking toward home, the 101st's base at Fort Campbell, KY.
I had the privilege of visiting Gander in 1995 - ironically, as part of a massive emergency exercise involving a hijacking scenario. The people there are amazing and their actions on behalf of the 9/11 passengers don't surprise me a bit. The bus driver who took our group to the Memorial - one of the most beautiful, touching, and powerful places I've ever been - was a volunteer fireman who responded to the crash. Even 10 years later, his eyes teared up as he remembered. "If we'd just found even one survivor," he said. "Just one."
On one of the worst days in history, the people of Gander stepped up, and stepped up big. To every one of them... :cheers:
I thought I'd share that, and the following, since we can all use a break now and then from the doom and gloom of today's news cycle, and people often appreciate learning about inspiring things they may not have known.
About 10,000 people live in Gander, and there were about 550 hotel rooms in 2001. When US airspace closed on 9/11, 39 international flights, carrying over 6,500 passengers and crew, diverted there.
Edited to add correct pic - I mistakenly used a pic of Halifax International Airport, which also received many diversions on 9/11. This is the correct pic, showing Gander International Airport on 9/11:
The people of Gander responded by opening their churches, schools, hospitals, and even their homes to the strangers of many nationalities, faiths, races, and backgrounds that tragedy had brought to their community. I highly recommend the book The Day the World Came to Town, which tells the incredible story of the town's response in the aftermath of 9/11.
The pic on the cover is the moving "Silent Witnesses" Memorial on the banks of Gander Lake, which the townspeople placed in memory of the horrific 1985 Arrow Air crash that killed 8 crew members and 248 brave soldiers of the US 101st Airborne Division who were returning from a peacekeeping mission abroad.
The children are holding olive branches in recognition of the peacekeeping mission, and the statues are even oriented such that the soldier is looking toward home, the 101st's base at Fort Campbell, KY.
I had the privilege of visiting Gander in 1995 - ironically, as part of a massive emergency exercise involving a hijacking scenario. The people there are amazing and their actions on behalf of the 9/11 passengers don't surprise me a bit. The bus driver who took our group to the Memorial - one of the most beautiful, touching, and powerful places I've ever been - was a volunteer fireman who responded to the crash. Even 10 years later, his eyes teared up as he remembered. "If we'd just found even one survivor," he said. "Just one."
On one of the worst days in history, the people of Gander stepped up, and stepped up big. To every one of them... :cheers:
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