"Every single child is entitled to a life full of possibilities."

September 7, 2010 6:37 PM

A New Career of Caring, Started in Death on 9/11. Brooke Jackman was a 23 year-old assistant bond trader who was one of 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees to die on the morning of 9/11/2001. In her memory, her family created a Foundation in her name, dedicated to promoting literacy, especially among elementary school children in New York City. Today, 'first responders' from New York's Police and Fire Departments "took some time off from their day jobs to read aloud to children at the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, as part of the first ever Brooke Jackman Foundation read-a-thon."

Per the New York Times article: "Since its founding, the foundation has distributed nearly 100,000 books and backpacks — dubbed Brooke Packs — often to "children mired in domestic violence and other predations."

The foundation also provided funding to Brooklyn's Family Justice Center, which built a children's library this year and last month launched its first family literacy program, aimed at abuse victims.

On Facebook. On Twitter.

posted by zarq (11 comments total)

My tired eyes were glad to see a constructive and loving way of honoring 9/11's dead.
posted by Mercaptan at 7:05 PM on September 7, 2010 [4 favorites]

More of this please. Less of driving missiles around instead.
posted by Unred at 7:26 PM on September 7, 2010

What a grand way for a family to remember their child.
posted by jgaiser at 7:28 PM on September 7, 2010

My heart continues to go out to those who lost loved ones in the horrible events of 9/11/01.That some were able to forge their pain into good astounds me and renews some of the hope for humanity I lost that day.
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:26 PM on September 7, 2010

The thing that stays with me, more than the phone calls that people made where they knew they were going to die, like the one Brooke made, is the people who jumped out of the towers holding hands and in some cases (IIRC) hugging.

I have a bunch of FDNY firefighters in my family and long before WTC they would talk about the occasional high rise fire where civilians had jumped from the building prior to FD arrival. Being burned to death is one of the most painful ways to die and you also can not breathe from the flames and smoke, so there is this primal instinct that impels people to the windows to escape the flames.

So, people on the upper floors, escape is impossible, flames and smoke closing in, no where to go but out the side of the building to your death. But before you jump you are able to hug someone else about to jump, and maybe you both jump while hugging and feel for the last time some human warmth as you hurtle to your death. Gets me crying every time I think about this.
posted by mlis at 11:18 PM on September 7, 2010 [2 favorites]

I always think about the people on the ground....I know the WTC jumpers were terrified and possibly in pain, but the option they chose was to potentially take someone else out with them.
posted by nevercalm at 9:57 AM on September 8, 2010

This feel good story made me feel wonderful indeed. Thanks zarq.
posted by bearwife at 1:31 PM on September 8, 2010

I always think about the people on the ground....I know the WTC jumpers were terrified and possibly in pain, but the option they chose was to potentially take someone else out with them.

You're a very thoughtful person. I for one am glad there's someone around here who is considerate enough to think of the guys on the street when they find them self suddenly burning to death while enjoying their morning coffee.
posted by WhitenoisE at 3:51 PM on September 8, 2010

I for one am glad there's someone around here who is considerate enough to think of the guys on the street when they find them self suddenly burning to death while enjoying their morning coffee.

I know you didn't mean to sound like such an asshole when you posted that. Because on 911 they didn't stop jumping after the FDNY arrived, and killed at least one of them, and a chaplin to boot. Is it still such a sanctified event that I can't point this out?
posted by nevercalm at 4:05 PM on September 8, 2010

There's nothing wrong with pointing that out. There's something wrong with the way you phrased it, as if the jumpers were in the position to rationally decide to sit in the smoke and flames instead of risking the chance of hurting someone else by jumping. You are sitting in your office on another boring Tuesday morning. As you sigh and turn towards your inbox, the roof collapses and the temperature rises 300 degrees. Do you think they should have wiped the ash from the window, peered down through their pocket binoculars, recognized that the FDNY had arrived, and then calmly breathed burning drywall while they considered the consequences of their actions? They didn't have a fucking option. When you are burning to death you do not think.

I am utterly astounded that you would even insinuate this and I hope to god that you did not mean to sound like such an asshole because the alternative is sickening.
posted by WhitenoisE at 7:17 PM on September 8, 2010

bearwife, you're very welcome, and thank you!
posted by zarq at 6:09 AM on September 9, 2010