‘PAULIE'S PUSH' SEEKS TO REMEMBER FLIGHT CREWS OF 911

BOSTON HERALD

People have said “Never forget” about the Sept. 11 attacks for many years — but Paulie Veneto wants to spotlight a group who he felt didn’t get remembered well enough in the first place.

Veneto, a former flight attendant, will trek the 220 miles from Boston to New York — undeterred by the incoming hurricane — pushing the airline service cart the whole way in an effort to raise awareness about the airline crew members who died during the terrorist attack.

Veneto, wearing a T-shirt that said “MIRACLE,” made no bones about openly weeping as he thanked everyone for coming and talked about why he’d undertaken the cause of who he called the “first first responders” to the horrors of that day.

“I know what I’m doing is right,” Veneto said in a gravely rasp, speaking only briefly at the event, as he was overcome with emotion. “And I know you all are here because you know it’s right.”

Veneto, who says that 9/11 sent him into a “tailspin of opiate addiction” that ate up 15 years of his life, said, “I’m just a guy who pushes a cart.”

A crowd sent Veneto off after a deeply emotional ceremony at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport on Saturday morning, an event at which many speakers had to pause to swallow hard past lumps in their throats before continuing. And multiple speakers — including U.S. Labor Secretary and former Boston Mayor Martin Walsh — thanked Veneto for reminding people about the flight staffs.

“It’s an untold story,” said Kelli Wilson of Power Forward, an organization working with Veneto.

Aram Jarret, whose daughter Amy Jarret was a 28-year-old flight attendant when she died in the terrorist attack, described the fight attendants as heroes, showing bravery in the face of a situation for which they had no training.

“In the last minutes of their life, these crew members gave comfort o their passengers with little opportunity to comfort themselves,” Jarret said.

Addressing a silent crowd, speakers at the event read off the names of the crews of the flights that al-Qaeda terrorists took down that Sept. 11.

Veneto and his cart, which reads “Paulie’s Push,” started his journey at Logan on Saturday, and plans to make it to Ground Zero in New York City by Sept. 9 or 10. Anyone interested can track his progress at pauliespush.com.

Dave McGillivray, the race director of the Boston Marathon, stirred gasps from the crowd when he told the story of a small American flag he’d worn in 1978 when he ran across the country for charity — and then gave the flag to Veneto for his voyage.

“Those who say it can’t be done should not interrupt those who are doing it,” McGillivray said. “Paulie is doing it.”