Siller's story strikes a nerve

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- On yet another crystal-clear September morning, Russ Siller stood at the base of what may be the most beautiful and moving of all 9/11 memorials.

From "Postcards," the soaring wings along the St. George waterfront that hold the names of the 274 past and present Islanders who lost their lives when the buildings fell, Siller could see all the way to Ground Zero.

The construction of "Postcards" was begun with a ground-breaking ceremony on the second anniversary of 9/11 in 2003. The site was dedicated exactly one year later, on the third anniversary.

"And they haven't even started over there," he said, shrugging in the direction of the hole in the ground downtown, where still no memorial stands.

Progress hasn't amounted to much at Ground Zero in terms of construction over these past seven years. There have been plenty of promises, and almost as many official announcements of one sort or another about how buildings will be rising any time now, along with parkland and arts centers and museums, and, of course, a great and serious memorial to commemorate the nation's loss.

We've all seen the renderings, and heard the speeches, and watched the real estate conversations.

Still, it's 2008 and nothing tangible has been accomplished.

Maybe they should hand over the task of getting things moving downtown to Siller, and the rest of the folks at the Tunnel to Towers Run.

On Sunday, they'll kick off the seventh race that traces the 9/11 steps of Russ's firefighter brother Stephen from the Brooklyn side of the Battery Tunnel to the site that once held the Twin Towers. There will be 25,000 runners from around the globe, thousands of volunteers who have seen to everything from massages for the weary to balloons for the karma, and a national television audience spellbound by the spectacle.

The NYPD will have closed down traffic through the tunnel, the Port Authority will have secured the streets around Ground Zero, and, if things go as they have in years past, all of it will come off without a serious glitch.

And all of this will take place because a small group of ordinary citizens wanted to, in a simple way, honor the sacrifice of those lost in the worst attack ever on American soil.

"We just wanted to have a run," Russ Siller always says of the intentions of he and his five siblings after their kid brother, himself the father of five young kids, was killed after responding to the attack.

What the Siller family did, instead, was inspire a city.

They told the story of Stephen Siller rushing from Brooklyn through the tunnel on foot after the first tower fell. And of how he perished along with all the others that day.

People heard, and responded.

Out of that response has grown not just the run, but a foundation that has raised and distributed millions in everything from scholarship funds for children of those lost to the continuing support of Hurricane Katrina victims along the Gulf Coast.

The Siller "Let Us Do Good" foundation has supported area burn centers and is central in the construction of Stephen's House, a home for orphaned and abandoned children in Stapleton.

How have they managed all of it?

"I think Stephen's story struck a nerve," is Russ Siller's explanation.

The wild times on Wall Street have cost some sponsorship money for the foundation. After all, you can't get a check from someplace that no longer exists. But even in all the turmoil and trouble of the American business world, there are stories. Like the one about the hard-pressed out-of-town company that reluctantly told the foundation, and its own employees, they wouldn't be able to write a check this year.

The response came from within, with the workers deciding they couldn't let go of their connection with the people who were lost on 9/11. They got together around the water coolers and in the lunch rooms, and brain-stormed each other for ways to make something good happen. Two fund-raisers later, they'd gathered up $75,000 and mailed it off to the Siller Foundation.

That's inspiration.

Then there was the morning a couple of years ago on the eve of 9/11 when Gabrielle Raymond was out for a walk on Long Beach Island. The young Long Islander noticed a flyer about the Tunnel to Towers run posted on a pole. When Raymond got back to her vacation beachhouse she Googled the Siller website, and began to read.

The following Monday she rushed into work to tell the rest of the folks in the office they had to do something to support the foundation. Because of Ms. Raymond, her employer, the New York Islanders, are among the most involved New Yorkers each year.

Anyone interested in becoming part of the Stephen Siller story can go to www.tunneltotowersrun.org for information.