A 9/11 message from the executive director:
The days and weeks following September 11, 2001, the world became New York City and exclaimed to its adopted neighborhood, “Whatever you need” through extraordinary outpourings of gifts to literally hundreds of charitable funds. There was little thought to the timeline of need and highway to healing.

The bells and sirens and daily reports of heroic acts in response to 9/11 have faded, as thousands of emotional and economic needs are just now surfacing. LDRNY is moving in September to Ground Zero, often now being called the most public place in America. We say in this move to the world and the people of NYC we will continue to honor the promise “whatever you need” for as long as it takes.

As the vital and heavily funded big-name disaster agencies have completed their tasks and move on, it’s the Church that must not be caught up in the immediate short term at the expense of those trapped under the wave effects of 9/11.

On 9/1,1 two zip codes, each of the WTC towers, vanished. Two huge vertical neighborhoods and a few “suburb” buildings surrounding them are simply gone. Could your neighborhood be obliterated and simply move on in less than two years? The front teeth of America’s gateway were knocked out. Our active long-term response will speak volumes about who we truly are – it will define us as a Church responding for as long as it takes to the poor, voiceless, powerless and grieving. LDRNY will continue to respond on your behalf in the name of a loving and compassionate God who has no limits or timeline. These will be our defining times.

-- Dr. John J. Scibilia