Elk River Star News
Saturday, September 10, 2016
By Jim Boyle, Editor

Article and video: http://erstarnews.com/2016/09/10/out-of-the-ashes-a-challenge-arises/

Elk River Fire Chief John Cunningham was at Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center to help out with search and recovery efforts.

He saw things, he said, that no one should ever have to see.

“Words just can’t describe that experience,” Cunningham said. “We didn’t take breaks because when we took breaks our minds would start to think, and that’s when the thoughts of how difficult it was and what we’re seeing really started to play on you. We just trucked forward because we had a job to do, and it was an extremely dangerous site.” Submitted photo

John Cunningham, a college student and volunteer firefighter at the time, helped out at Ground Zero after the attack on the World Trade Center.

Cunningham had answered a call to be there. It wasn’t one that went off in this college kid’s car that was rigged with police scanners since he was old enough to drive.

It was, however, those scanners, on which he heard of the attempts to evacuate the World Trade Center. Etched on his mind are the reports of the towers collapsing.
“I remember the maydays come out and just the silence that they couldn’t talk anymore,” Cunningham said.

The call Cunningham answered was more along the lines of the call he sensed growing up, especially after his mother signed him up at the age of 13 for the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department’s Explorers program in Greenwich, Connecticut. He grew up there about 30 minutes from New York City, as the crow flies.

It was the same internal call he felt as he rose the ranks as an Explorer and then after he became a volunteer firefighter in 1998 at the age of 18 and continued his ascent.

The same call that led him to seek out a career in public safety, which led him to Elk River in 2009 to become Elk River’s fire chief at the age of 29.

Sept. 11, 2001

As it became apparent on the morning on Sept. 11, 2001, in a computer lab at Fairfield University while combing the internet that the plane crash and subsequent fire at the World Trade Center was no accident, Cunningham politely excused himself to make the trek from the college back to his hometown and the fire station where he was a volunteer firefighter. He needed to be there. He needed to help out.

But that’s not what he’ll be thinking of tomorrow on the 15th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in U.S. history.

It will be the bonds that he formed with firefighters from New York City and a department from Portland, Oregon, that took the first available flight after the attack. It will be how Americans rallied to support one another.

And, perhaps most of all, it will be the short trek he and fellow Sound Beach volunteer firefighter Dominick Briganti made at the end of that long shift sifting through concrete rubble in desperate hopes of finding public safety and civilian survivors.

The sun was setting as the last rays of sunlight lit a silhouette of what remained of the twin towers as he and Briganti looked back to see smoke rising from the ruins.

“I remember Dominick and I taking a solemn walk out of the site,” Cunningham said. “We didn’t really speak. Words didn’t need to be spoken. We knew what we saw and what happened.”

The street, normally a bustling thoroughfare into the city was desolate. Behind them the shift change was happening. People were getting into position. Emergency and work crews were entering their night mode.

As Cunningham and Briganti rounded a corner, what they saw next took their breath away.  “It was a spectacular showing of patriotism. We saw thousands of the people. Young and old. Men and women that were holding flags. Holding signs that said ‘God bless the United States.’ Signs of thanks,” Cunningham said. “I remember thinking, ‘Who are they cheering for? Who’s this for?’ I remember looking around and there’s no one else standing there, it’s just us.

“As a firefighter I don’t do it for the thanks. We don’t. We’re the ones when the bell goes off when someone could be having the worst day of their life and we’re there to comfort them and solve the problem. I was just taken back. I had never seen that happen before.”

In spite of everything that was happening in the country, he said, it was a reminder that we’re Americans. We’re a community. We support one another. Neighbors, fellow Americans, were standing there saying thank you to first responders.

“To me, I didn’t deserve the thanks. It was the hundreds of firefighters that lost their life. I was awestruck.”

What Cunningham will be thinking and talking about on Sept. 11, 2016, is a young girl that broke free from the barricade, ducked underneath caution tape and ran up to both of them and handed them a blue ribbon that said, “Who I am makes a difference.”

“That moment I will never forget because it’s true,” Cunningham said. “Every single person can make an impact on the life of someone else; regardless of how small (an) act of kindness might seem, it can make the biggest difference in the lives of others.”

Cunningham bought a box of these ribbons for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in the first few years as the Elk River Fire chief and gave them to Elk River Police officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel.

This year’s headlines got him thinking about the ribbons again. As the 15th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, approached, the headlines got more troubling, patriotism had dipped, and he felt a need to do something.

“I remember watching the news unfold and seeing the death count rise as the news broke that there was an active shooter in a nightclub that was targeting gays,” Cunningham said. “For me that hurt.
As a gay man, Cunningham found himself incensed. In talking to others about the Orlando shooting, the killing of Dallas police officers and the stories behind other tragic headlines, a host of issues – from bullying, discrimination, racial tension and socioeconomic disparities and addictions – came up.

“These are real issues that affect real people,” Cunningham said. “We need to get back on track as a country to acknowledge that we have much more in common with one another than differences.”
He wants people to recognize those around them who make a positive difference in their life.

“This is a message that needs to continue forward,” he said. “I realized on that day (I was given my blue ribbon) and that moment that everyone can make a difference in the lives of others. It was a small spur of the moment decision that girl made, but 15 years later I remember it and I remember the feeling and impact it had on me. The actions of one person can make a difference.”

Cunningham sat in front of video cameras this past week at Elk River Fire Station 2 to record a challenge for all 23,000 members of the Elk River community. It reads like this:

“As the community’s fire chief, I am issuing a challenge to everyone that calls Elk River home — that we empower people to live, dream and succeed in a culture of appreciation, respect and love. Let Elk River serve as a beacon of hope worldwide, because this is a fire that we never want to put out.

“So join me on this challenge to acknowledge people who have made an impact on your life and share those stories with me and our community and the world.”

The chief asks Elk River residents to visit erblueribbon.com to learn how they can meet this challenge. Information will also be available on the city’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages at erblueribbon.

Cunningham’s hope is that people share their stories by using the hashtag “erblueribbon.”

The Star News will tell stories in the coming editions about someone Cunningham gave a ribbon to and one person in his life he wished he had given a ribbon to before she died.
And as the challenge unfolds, the Star News will consider telling your stories, too, about the difference makers in the lives of Elk River residents.

Website: http://ERBlueRibbon.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erBlueRibbon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ERBlueRibbon
Social media hashtag: #ERBlueRibbon