I want to first thank my whole family for their support and especially my step daughter Francesca for all her hard work in helping me get this up and running. Without her, I would be not have been able to put up this website.  I hope all will enjoy reading, come back and visit to learn of the progress and find in it your heart to say a little prayer for all those lost to the events of September 11, 2001. 
 

    Our Story of Why I and My Family Began This Adventure

For the past eight years I have sought some way to honor those families that were directly impacted by the events of the morning of September 11, 2001. On that day I was just getting ready to meet with clients and finishing up a few things around my home and decided to turn on the news. At first I thought I was watching some movie trailer but soon realized that this was real and not a staged event. All through the next two hours we all learned that not only had two aircraft directly hit the World Trade Center Towers but that the Pentagon was struck and later we learned of Flight 93 crashing into a field east of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Suddenly we all realized how vulnerable we were to extremist thinking. 

It is certainly not the intent with this site to past judgment on leadership at the time, but rather to create a site to help raise funds to be sent to charities that already exist. I believe that there are four different groups. The firefighters of NYC, the many families in towers, families from the Pentagon, and the families from all the aircraft involved.

My goal is to find charities that directly benefit the families that lost a loved one as a result of the overall events. The plan is to collect over the next 20 months (starting in January 2010) as much funding as possible using the media, my business and any other resources I can contact. Then in late August of 2011 I will leave the San Francisco Bay Area on my 2009 Harley Davidson Ultra Glide Fireman’s Edition and travel to New York City by way of Route 66. Route 66 was chosen as the route that is deep in the history of travel across our nation. Since Route 66 ends in Chicago, I will then travel to the Shanksville Pennsylvania and Pentagon sites before arrival at the Memorial site in New York on September 11, 2011. 

I will throughout the roughly next 20 months post my progress and those occasional speed bumps that come with any project whether large or small. I also would hope that others will consider joining the ride whether going the full distance or just part way in support of my cause. Also should anyone have suggestions or thoughts on ways to make this happen I would hope you will drop me an email at Ride2NewYork@gmail.com Be patient in that I will collect your suggestion, and try to respond to as many as I can.