January 31, 2010 Team Walk- Winter Garden

Wow! Due to some very nasty weather last month, for the first time, our Memorial Miles walk was cancelled (snowed out!!) and pushed back to the following month. SO, we did the February 2010 monthly walk on March 5, 2010.

In light of such nasty, cold weather, we were on the prowl for something warm. What better than a walk to the Winter Garden to enjoy some tropical palm trees! In addition, it was Frederic Chopin's 200th Birthday, so we were treated to live piano music playing his music in celebration. All in all, a great way to beat the nasty weather our there!



Here, Malik, Amadou and Vinny (our newest Miler) enjoy the tropical heat coming from the palm trees inside the winter Garden.

Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K Run

Coogan’s 12th Annual SALSA, BLUES & SHAMROCK 5K RUN
(begins at Fort Washington Avenue and West 173rd Street)
March 7, 2010

What a beautiful day to kick-off the 2010 running season and how better to do it then with another famous New York City run, the Coogan’s Salas-Blues, Shamrock 5K Run starting at West 173rd Street and Fort Washington Avenue in Washington Height’s. The scenic route circles the historic Cloisters and returns to 169th Street. New York City Road Runners calls this “the best road race outside of Central Park”. The run starts at 173rd Street a few blocks North of the New York Armory, and for those of you who know running history, this is an indoor track facility that has seen it’s fair share of world class runners come through its doors, in addition it house the USA TRACK AND FIELD HALL OF FAME. This race is a celebration of the strong community ties and rich cultural diversity of northern Manhattan.

There must have been over 4,000 runners of all ages running toady including world class competitors, local celebrities and hundreds of kids running their hearts out. The course is hilly and starts in a very urban New York City setting of Washington Heights in the shadow of the George Washington Bridge, it eventually takes you into Fort Tyron Park, which is a very wooded park with spectacular views of the Harlem River to the East and the Hudson River and the Palisade Cliff’s of New Jersey to the West. If you did not know better when you get to Fort Tyron Park you would not know you were in NYC! Another treat of running in this race is along the course there were Salas Bands, Meringue Bands, Klezmer Bands, Blues and Jazz Bands, Bagpipes and Brass Bands, as well as groups of cheerleader squads and local high school marching bands, this is a real neighborhood celebration!

Proceeds from the race will benefit the newly opened USA TRACK AND FIELD HALL OF FAME and the ARMORY TRACK AND FIELD CENTER.

Races “within the race” also include the Captain Frederick III Jr. race, created in memory of a local firefighter who lost his life in the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Captain III had founded this race, a competition among uniformed service. This year, Captain III’s wife was there to start the race alongside other local dignitaries.

January 31, 2010 Team Walk

SKYSCAPER MUSEUM
January 31, 2010

On a bitter cold January day, Memorial Milers Clarelle DeGraffe, Tom Grassi, Malik Goodson, Kamron Khan, Sochieta Moth and Paul Pietropaolo began their THIRD calendar year (2008, 2009, and now 2010!!!), with a team walk to the Skyscraper Museum located at the tip of Manhattan.

Since so much of what we lost and what we are rebuilding involves skyscrapers, this was another fascinating place right here in Lower Manhattan ($5 entrance fee) that we could walk to.

https://email.panynj.gov/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.skyscraper.org/home_flash.htm


Tom & Malik get ready to head out on the January Memorial Miles team walk.













Kamron and Tom do a little racing to keep warm.
You can see the steel frame for the Tower One (Freedom Tower) rising in the background.

Getting ready to enter the museum, you can tell by the looks on our faces and the empty streets, it was really cold down at the tip of Manhattan Island! The wind whipping off the New York Bay cut through you like a knife.

Happy Memorial Miles inside the exhibit hall!

This was our seventeenth monthly walk!!!

Look at the places we have been as a group:

2008

September- WTC Site October- Battery Park/ Koenig Sphere

November- Police Memorial, Battery Park City

December- South Street Seaport

2009

January- Federal Hall National Memorial

February- The African Burial Ground

March- Hunger Memorial

April- Lincoln Tunnel 5k

May- The Brooklyn Bridge

June- East Coast Memorial

July- Bowling Green Park

August- St. Paul's Chapel

September- National 9/11 Memorial and Museum's Preview Site

October- Trinity Church "Trinity Tree Root"

November- US Custom House

December- US Stock Exchange Christmas Tree

In addition, don't forget that Memorial Miles was the first charity organization featured on the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum's "Supporter Spotlight". Please be sure to continue to spread the word via the attached link:

https://email.panynj.gov/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.national911memorial.org/site/PageServer?pagename=memorialmiles

Miles Through December 2009

Total Miles Walk/Run Through December 2009: 12,804.5 Miles

Monthly Group Walk- November 30, 2009

This month's group walk led us to yet another under-rated lower Manhattan landmark, the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House.

In its heyday, the Custom House was a bustling place of activity as brokers and customs agents worked together building the wealth of this nation.


In 1899 the Office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury held a national competition for the design of a new Custom House, which was to be built fronting Bowling Green—the same site as the Dutch Custom House (in what was then Fort Amsterdam), and the Government House, which served as the U.S. Custom House from 1789 to 1815. Twenty architectural firms submitted competition entries, and the contract was awarded to Cass Gilbert (1859-1934), a well-regarded young New York architect. By 1900, New York was the premier port of entry in the U.S., producing 65 percent of the gross national customs revenue. The new Custom House would have to reflect the presence of the federal government and the importance of the U.S. Customs Service as the nation’s most important port of entry.


Today, the Custom House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places for both exterior and public interior spaces, is home to the New York branch of the National Museum of the American Indian as well as the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York and several art galleries.

Thanksgiving Day Dick Meighan 5K Run, November 26, 2009

As every year, what better way to kick- off Thanksgiving but with a brisk, challenging 3.1 mile race.

It's always a very festive event and a great way to start the day. Even better, as it's a particularly challenging course, featuring several hills (especially that big one at the end), I nailed a new PR (Personal Record) for this course, finishing at 25:48.

Monthly Group Walk, Trinity Tree Root, Trinity Church, October 30, 2009

Our monthly group walk for October 2009 was to the 'Trinity Tree Root', located at Trinity Church in Downtown Manhattan.

Sculptor Steve Tobin and his team of artists, sculptors, and restoration specialists in Quakertown, PA, created the Root carefully memorializing and preserving forever the natural remnants of the Trinity Tree Root, which was once located in front of St. Paul’s Chapel near the World Trade Center in New York City.

As debris rained down around the Chapel on Sept. 11, 2001, an enormous sycamore tree shielded the building from catastrophic damage. In the weeks that followed. St. Paul’s became a place of worship and a place of rest for those who worked tirelessly at the epicenter of the tragedy. Volunteers, counselors, and healthcare professionals transformed the Chapel into the central meeting place where workers ate, slept, wept, and were renewed as they poured time and effort into search and cleanup operations.



Eventually, St. Paul’s sycamore tree succumbed to the extensive damage from falling debris and was cut down. Its roots and stump remained at St. Paul’s until Tobin’s crew was commissioned to excavate and reproduce the root in bronze.

To create the bronze casting through the lost wax process, Steve and his crew needed to make numerous flexible rubber molds to capture the intricate shapes and detail of the stump and all the root structure.

USS New York

November 7, 2009
USS New York Commissioning

This Memorial Miler had the honor and privilege to attend the November 7, 2009 commissioning ceremony for the USS New York in New York City at the Intrepid Museum on Pier 86! It was a very emotional ceremony and I was glad I was on hand with my wife Susan and the many other families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks to see the commissioning of the Navy and Marines newest amphibious assault ship.

Built with 7½ tons of World Trade Center steel salvaged from the fallen Twin Towers, she officially went into active duty, becoming the Navy's newest warship - and a proud symbol of fortitude.

As the command rang out: "Bring the ship to life!", I got a lump in my throat as the crew members ran into position and in their dress blues stood at attention along the rails, the radar antennas began to revolve, black smoke poured from three stacks, sirens blared and the whistle blew, she became an official US Navy Warship!

Our thoughts and prayers are with the brave young crew members of the USS New York, and we wish her “Fair Winds and Following Seas”.









The Ship's Crest

• Seven rays of sunlight signify the crown atop the Statue of Liberty and the seven seas.
  
• Central focus placed on the Twin Towers and the bow of the ship, forged from Twin Towers steel.
  
• Breastplate of the phoenix bears the colors of first responders from the New York Police Department, New York Fire Department, and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
  
• Blood drops represent the fallen.
  
• Three stars for those earned by the battleship USS NEW YORK (BB34) in World War II at Iwo Jima, Okinawa and North Africa.
  

From the NY Daily News (11-08-09):

"The New York will be a visible testament to our resilience," said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus as the first watch was set and hundreds of sailors and Marines ran onto the decks of the ship, a tradition signaling the official commissioning of the vessel.

Cmdr. Curt Jones, a native New Yorker, took command during an emotional ceremony at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum attended by more than 6,000 people, including Secretary of State Clinton, Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg.

"There is a lot of emotion that is associated with this ship for all of us," Jones said. "The steel that is in the bow of the ship, that motivates us literally every day in what we do."

The ship, which has a crew of about 360 sailors, will be docked at Pier 88 until Thursday, when it heads to its home port at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia.

"This ship has been the product of a lot of hard work," Paterson said. "It is not just named the New York - it IS New York."

Clinton said the New York will help the nation heal, more than eight years after the World Trade Center attack. "In that steel, burned but unbroken, lives the spirit we saw on 9-11," she said. "Sometimes our pain can lead us to purpose."

Mike Petters is the president of Northrop Grumman, which built the ship in Avondale, La. "We needed this ship," Petters said. "New York needed this ship. And America needed this ship."

For Carl Scheetz, a firefighter with Rescue 1 in Hell's Kitchen, the ship is a reminder of the city's strength. "To me it's a show of resiliency to the whole tragedy that happened," he said. "The crew members are great. I met a Marine and went to say 'Thank you' to him. He said, 'No, sir, thank you very much.' "We have a lot in common," Scheetz said.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/11/07/2009-11-07_uss_new_york_comes_to_life.html#ixzz0WJVuaFOn


Commission Web site: worth a visit!
http://www.ussny.org/commissioning.php

The bow stern of the USS New York - Built with 7½ tons of World Trade Center steel salvaged from the fallen Twin Towers!

San Francisco, CA

October 29 - November 2, 2009

I had chance to get out to San Francisco for a long weekend! Great town to do a lot of tourist stuff! Great place to do a lot of walking or running, so I took advantage of the opportunity! It just so happened that the US Half Marathon was taking place on November 1st, so I joined in on the start! To be honest I did not run the full course, I had a full day of site-seeing ahead of me, but I did put in a good run! It was a lot of fun!


Memorial Miler Paul in San Francisco!


Start of the US Half Marathon (No - I did not run the whole thing!)


Hopping a ride on a cable car!

Taking a break at the bottom of Lombard Street!