Kerri Burnside is a fourth grade teacher at Eastside Elementary in Clinton. She's helping nine and ten year old students understand the impact of the September 11th attacks. For a couple of years, she held skype sessions in class with - now retired - New York City firefighter, Carl Schramm. Burnside says it's exciting for her students to meet him in person this year, for the first time.
"I'm delighted to be able to provide this experience to our kids today. I have always to instill the importance of this day in history with my students. Two years ago we skyped with him. This summer he contacted me and said 'I want to come talk to them in person!'," says Burnside.
Schramm was a first-responder on September 11th, 2001. Eastside's fourth-graders were not even born yet, making it that much more important for him to share his personal experiences with them.
"A lot of it was kind of unreal. When I saw that first building collapse, I said to myself, I cant imagine how many police officers, firefighters, and civilians just died. A total of almost 1,700 or 1,800 people, we start digging through, and searching through the rubble, and you're finding people, but it was like were doing this, and nobody's finding anybody," Schramm says.
Schramm detailed his experiences at ground zero that day. He says by sharing with the next generation, the memory of New York’s most tragic moment will never be forgotten.
