The Berlin
Cit itiz ize en
Volume 15, Number 36
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
At decade mark, 9/11 memorial provides a way to reflect
Fair flight
By Olivia L. Lawrence The Berlin Citizen
Photo by Matt Zangari
Matt Zangari took this photo while flying over the Berlin Fair during the late 1990s, the last season helicopter rides were offered. Send your favorite fair photo to news@theberlincitizen.com and share your memories.
Berlin Fair
Thursday, September 8, 2011
See what’s new at the Berlin Fair page 4.
Kensington Fire Rescue will host a 9/11 remembrance ceremony this Sunday, Sept. 11, near the Farmington Avenue firehouse. This day marks 10 years since the attacks on the United States. Fire Chief Mark Lewandowski said the details are being finalized, but the time is set for 11 a.m. The crew will be setting up for the event in front of Matson Rug. The company is creating a memorial from steel beams it retrieved from a storage facility that houses relics from
the World Trade Towers. At this time, it is a temporary set-up as the final construction won’t take place until other projects underway in the area are completed. While this local 10th anniversary event is one way to connect and remember those who were lost that day, Lewandowski said it’s important, not just one particular passage, but “to remember every day, every year.” If residents are unable to make it to this event, they are welcome to stop by the fire house and view the memorial and reflect on it, Lewandowski said. “We invite anyone who’d like to, to come
down and stop in.” Lewandowski organized the retrieval of the beams and is overseeing plans for a permanent memorial outside the firehouse. He said he got involved in the project because “I just had to do what I think is right.” He talked about a unique memorial seen at fire houses in New York City. Each firehouse has a duty roster posted that lists the names of personnel who are the responders to a particular incident. The rosters from Sept. 11, 2001, are preserved in plexiglass at each station.
See more 9/11 coverage on page 15.
Lung cancer walk a natural for wife, daughter of victim By Olivia L. Lawrence The Berlin Citizen
Berlin resident Cher Williams and her daughter Tiffany will be walking in a Free to Breathe® event Sept. 18 in Glastonbury. They hope to get as many friends and neighbors as possible involved. Husband and father, John J. Williams, lost his fight with lung cancer last winter. He’d been diagnosed in 2009. He was well-known in town for his support of local sports, especially softball, which daughter Tiffany played at Berlin High School. “I’m behind this 100 percent,” said Cher Williams. The family had participated in American Cancer Society events, but when Tiffany found there was a local event, specific to lung cancer, her mother signed on immediately. “I was so thrilled when my daughter found this. I want to go
Tiffany Williams with her father John J. Williams shortly before he died.
for this and help find a cure for it — and stop kids from smoking and become more active in this.” Free to Breathe® unites lung cancer advocates, survivors and communities across the country to raise awareness and research funding to defeat lung cancer. The upcoming event was organized by two-time lung cancer survivor Judith Levi, of
Old Saybrook. Tiffany Williams said “My participation in this event means much more than any other walk I’ve done. It is so hard to find an event for lung cancer, and here is my chance to give my all to this one event. My plan is to talk to the volunteers and try to help coordinate another event, and another — what I want to do is make this more than a once a year thing.” Statistics from the National Lung Cancer Partnership state that: Lung cancer takes the lives of nearly 160,000 people annually — more people than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined; that approximately 2,640 people are diagnosed with lung cancer
in Connecticut each year; and that lung cancer takes the lives of approximately 1,760 people in Connecticut each year. Tiffany Williams said, “I want to bring more awareness to this cancer than there currently is. There isn’t enough. Lung cancer is the No.1 cancer killer in America. So why is there so little awareness and support? There is pretty close to none. I don’t want anyone to have to go through what my father had to. Here is my opportunity to help out and make a difference. Donate, join my team, create your own team, walk with me, or just read some information on lung cancer. Any awareness is better than none.” The Free to Breathe® event offers a 5K run/walk and a one mile walk and 100 percent of net proceeds will
See Lung, page 7