By Trudy Whitman
After the body blow that was 9/11, Nancy Carbone looked around to see how she could help her city. When she heard that 343 firefighters had been lost at Ground Zero, she was appalled. Carbone walked over to a local firehouse in Red Hook to ask how she could help. The firefighters had lost brothers in the inferno, but they didn’t have the purple and black bunting that is traditionally draped across a house when members die. In normal circumstances, ceremonial units deliver the bunting. At that awful time, however, there was neither the manpower nor the material to go around.
Carbone’s first thought was to purchase yards and yards of fabric and sew up the bunting herself. Rejecting the idea as impractical, she began phoning suppliers around the country; most were happy to do what they could to help NYC’s Bravest.
Other neighbors were filling the firehouse with food and drink. The firefighters knew, however, that members of other houses, particularly those in industrial areas, were not being as well served by the public. Carbone began transporting food to those units. She did other small tasks. She did whatever was asked of her as needs arose.
“At the time I didn’t realize that I was just building trust,” she observes.
As the emotional and physical toll of the attack and cleanup began to take its toll, a group of firefighters asked if a private off-site location for counseling services might be set up. One of the local volunteers, Elizabeth O’Connell, offered storefront property on Columbia Street that she owned with her husband, Gregory, a former New York City policeman and a well-regarded Red Hook real estate developer.
“Elizabeth O’Connell was one of our earliest supporters and continues to do a lot,” says Carbone. “The O’Connells donated the use of the building at 159½ Columbia for the first year, and Elizabeth served as our first board chair.”
Carbone explains that because of the emotion of the times and all the work that had to be done, the establishment and funding of Friends of Firefighters — the not-for-profit group that sprouted in early 2002 from the grassroots volunteer efforts of neighbors in Carroll Gardens and Red Hook — is a bit of “a blur.” “Word spread about the work we were doing and funding came to us. Fire departments and towns in Germany came together and donated some money the second year. The counseling was carried out by Safe Horizons. Although we continue to partner with other organizations, we now have our own in-house clinician, and, at this point, of course, we are tracking down funding.”
Among the services offered by Friends of Firefighters are peer, group, and professional counseling; therapeutic massage and acupuncture; referral services; family and couples outings and trips; and the City of Berlin Scholarship. The scholarship is run by the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation (named for the passage through the Berlin Wall that existed in the Soviet years), and is open to high school seniors whose parent has retired as a result of September 11.
In 2005, the Friends of Firefighters Wellness Center opened a few doors down from its headquarters on Columbia Street. At the core of the Wellness Center — just as it is in every NYC firehouse — is the kitchen, where this reporter sat down for a discussion with Nancy Carbone, executive director; Stephanie Folwell, director of communications; and Tony Catapano, a retired 42-year FDNYC veteran and a peer counselor at the center. Above the kitchen door is a sign that reads, What you say here, stays here.
“The Wellness Center came out of the need to uphold the trust of the firefighters,” Stephanie Folwell remarks. “It got to the point that being in that one office didn’t afford us the luxury of confidentiality. We realized we needed a separate environment in which people really feel that they have a safe haven. We modeled it after a firehouse kitchen so the firefighters can cook, eat, and sit together. This is the structure that has worked so well for 150 years.”
Carbone adds that for the veterans of 9/11 the Wellness Center might actually afford more support and camaraderie than they receive at the engine and ladder companies they are assigned to. Not only did hundreds die during the catastrophe, but many have retired as a result of it. “The job is very ‘young’ now,” she stresses.
Tony Catapano helped to make the Wellness Center kitchen resemble firehouse kitchens as much as possible. He cooks breakfast there once a month and has acquired a following too large for the small center; frequently people must bring their plates out onto Columbia Street. “A lot of the retired brothers come in here; some of the female firefighters come too. Breakfast runs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. We put the department radio on. We try to make them comfortable.”
Catapano is one of Friends of Firefighters’ peer counselors. “If they don’t want to come here, we’ll meet them in a diner. Some don’t want to be recognized as having problems. I do the best I can. I might recommend that they see the clinician. I’ve been through almost everything on the job, so I know what’s going on.”
Friends of Firefighters has provided services to over 5,000 firefighters and their families. Interestingly, the group has seen a 75 percent increase of services to firefighters from January 2006 to January 2007, and another 50 percent increase from January 2007 to May 31, 2007. Carbone, Folwell, and Catapano attribute this to a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that their discreet word-of-mouth approach to proffering services has reached many ears. The bad thing is that many 9/11 veterans are just now being diagnosed with disorders and diseases that may be attributable to the disaster. (The latency period for blood cell cancers, for example, is at least five years, according to David Newman, an industrial hygienist at the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.)
The quiet little not-for-profit on Columbia Street has been active in efforts to retain Engine 204, first for the purpose it was designed for, and then, when that failed, as a site for community use.
The firehouse at 299 DeGraw Street was one of six slated for shutdown by the city in 2003, despite protests by both citizens and elected officials. Sale of the property was averted this summer, however, when the city agreed to lease it on a long-term basis to an organization that benefits the community. Friends of Firefighters has submitted a proposal to move its operations to the vacant firehouse. Other community-based groups have done the same. (According to Tom Gray, an aide to City council member Bill de Blasio, a committee will study the proposals and decide which group will reside at 299 DeGraw. The committee is comprised of Council Members de Blasio and David Yassky, Community Board 6, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and the mayor and borough president’s offices.)
Nancy Carbone says that a move to DeGraw Street would allow the group to broaden its mission by offering fire prevention and emergency preparedness workshops and classes to the neighborhood. She envisions Civilian Emergency Response Training (CERT), CPR and infant CPR, as well as fire safety sessions for school children. She visualizes “retired firefighters using the skills that they have to work with the community — which is what they love to do anyway — inside a firehouse. What a great way to be able to reach the public,” she says.
Very few modifications to the building would be needed for the Friends of Firefighters’ plan, Carbone adds: “The kitchen needs to be a kitchen because that’s the heart and soul of what we do. We would need the apparatus floor for classes. The only big change would be partitioned areas upstairs for therapy, but these could be knocked down easily if the building is returned to service.”
“We think we’re the best, most natural fit for the building because of the population we serve,” says Stephanie Folwell. “As Nancy has said in the past, firefighters belong in firehouses. It’s very hard for me to picture anyone else in there.”
“We all need to stop occasionally and think back to how we felt in 2001 when we heard 343 firefighters died. Let’s give the firefighters the firehouse so that they can continue taking care of each other,” says Nancy Carbone.
“That’s it in a nutshell,” Tony Catapano agrees.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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