News
Editorial: Improving the world
Scott Wagar
09/11/2012
This past week as hundreds of people from around the nation came to Bottineau County to volunteer their services to the Annie’s House project at the Bottineau Winter Park, my heart was touched by the number of volunteers who came to our little corner of the world to construct Ann Nicole Nelson’s dream of assisting the mentally and physically handicapped.
As I thought of the volunteers and Ann, my mind drifted back to another young woman, who, like Ann, lost her own life to haters and terrorists of the innocent, and who wrote about the importance of volunteering in times of darkness and troubles on our earth. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” These words were written by Anne Frank; and, her words were very profound to me as volunteers descended upon the Winter Park to improve the world, and to make sure, with happiness in their hearts, that Ann’s house would become a reality for her.
Annie’s House has been in the making for some time now, and it started with Jeff Parness, the founder and chairman of the New York Says Thank You Foundation, who learned of Ann’s dream after learning that she was the only individual to lose her life on 9-11 from North Dakota. With the dream in hand, NYSTYF moved forward with their hearts on their sleeves and love for Ann, her parents Gary and Jenette Nelson, North Dakota and this nation to bring this enduring event to Bottineau County over the weekend.
What makes a New York Says Thank You event so pleasing of course are the volunteers. Individuals whose hearts are not about themselves, but about others, and taking their pure and beautiful hearts to work to make our earth a more peaceful and enjoyable place to live. The volunteers for this event, who came from around the nation, did a remarkable job working long hours and in some crazy North Dakota weather, to bring a grand building to Bottineau County for Ann.
When it comes to being a volunteer, writer and author Erma Bombeck said, “Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect this nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience, and just plain loving one another.”
We, in Bottineau County, and throughout North Dakota, we’re able to see all the wonderful primary qualities that Bombeck spoke about through unselfish volunteers who didn’t think about gaining notoriety for themselves; but silently gave all they had for a young women, who the majority had never met or knew from North Dakota, to make her aspiration come true to lend a helping hand for others.
Tuesday marks the 11th anniversary of September 11. My mind, these past days has been on Ann and her parents, especially her mother, Jenette, who after losing her daughter in such a horrific and uncalled crime against humanity, she turned to poetry to rest her sorrows over losing her child. As I thought of Jenette this weekend, and with 9-11 being so closed, it made me think of her words in “Today I Met a Hero,” which she wrote after she went to New York City to see ground zero a couple of months after 9-11. Fitting words I believe for us to remember that terrible day.
“Today I met a hero - He was brave and he was strong. He walked among the rubble - Of the tower’s terrible wrong. His eyes were filled with anguish - His eyes were filled with pain. He smoldered with an anger - He barely could contain. He had been sorting through the rubble - to find his fallen friend. He had been sorting through the rubble - for hours without end. He saw me standing weeping - He felt my crippling pain. He saw me standing weeping- as I looked at terror’s reign. He saw me standing weeping- he looked deeply in my eyes. He asked if I had lost someone - but I could only cry. I nodded confirmation- the tears they would not stop. I could not tell him of my child - who had been working at the top. Who had been working at her papers - among her tools of trade. Who was the sweetest angel - that God had ever made. He did not need my words of anguish - He did not need my words at all. He heard my heart there breaking. And he answered to its call. He said, “Stand your ground - wait here, until I’m back.” Someone there beside me handed him a sack. He strode across the rubble - He disappeared from sight. I stood there dying, weeping - as he carried on his fight. I stood there dying, weeping - as I looked upon her grave. I stood there dying, weeping - as her ashes he bent to save. He picked a beam of steel - he made of it a cross. He gently placed it in my hands - as he comforted my loss. I pinned her picture on his coat. I clasped him to my breast. I told him that her name was Ann. She was our very best. I wanted somehow to thank him. But I knew he read my heart. Just as I knew he was hero - from the very start.”
That volunteer at ground zero, symbolizes the volunteers who came to Bottineau County this past week. Let’s us never forget these earnest volunteers who work magnanimously due to the actions of 9-11.