WASHINGTON — On Sunday we mark a somber anniversary. More than two decades have passed since the September 11 terrorists attacks. One man is leading a big effort to make sure we never forget.
Paul Veneto is pushing a beverage cart from Dulles International Airport to the Pentagon to remember the people he calls the first first responders, the flight crews aboard American Airlines Flight 77.
Veneto is a retired flight attendant. He says his colleagues battled the terrorists in the skies that fateful day. For him, the push is also deeply personal.
He was based in Boston in 2001, and he was supposed to be on United Airlines Flight 175, which ultimately crashed into the World Trade Center.
This is the second time Veneto has made his cart push.
“Last year I pushed my cart from Boston Logan to Ground Zero, a route representing the flight paths of United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11, the flights that hit the Towers,” Veneto said. “All along the route people came up to me and said how much they appreciated what I was doing.” That helped influence his decision to continue the push, he said.
Veneto pushes with the names of all four flight crews on his cart, and has spent time in between each Sept 11 push meeting with crew families and even pushing his cart in a memorial 5K event in Celeron, New York, for fallen colleague Amy King.
“I’ll push this cart as many miles as I can to keep these heroes’ names alive,” Veneto said. “That’s the least that I can do for them.”
Paulie began his push to the Pentagon on Sept. 8. He will finish the push at the Pentagon at 2 p.m. on Sept. 11. You can track his progress here.
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