Community Corner

'Remember What The American Spirit Is'

Jonathan Clifford, the youngest volunteer at Ground Zero, recalls how 9/11 touched and changed him—and a nation.

There are no words, yet Jonathan Clifford had to find them.

Ten years after a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and both horrified and united an entire nation, Clifford, 22, took to the lectern at Trinity Episcopal Church Sunday to encapsulate as best he could the emotion and the significance of Sept. 11.

“There’s no combination of words in the English language that can aptly describe the feeling that day,” said Clifford, the featured speaker at the Burlington County 200 Club’s annual 9/11 memorial service. “It was nerve-racking, cause I don’t think words can do it justice ... I wanted to do the victims justice.”

A crowd of police officers, firefighters and paramedics, along with everyday citizens and several politicians, including Mayor John Button and U.S. Rep. John Runyan, filled the church to hear Clifford speak.

At 13, Clifford only months after the attacks to volunteer at St. Paul’s Chapel, an Episcopal church a block from the World Trade Center towers that became both a memorial and a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers in the days after the attacks.

Volunteer coordinators graciously overlooked Clifford’s age—technically, he had to be 18 to be there—and allowed him to become the youngest volunteer there. He spent a 12-hour shift serving coffee and food, restocking shelves and offering support in whatever way he could.

“Pride,” said Clifford’s mother, Robin, when asked to explain how she felt watching her son speak at Trinity Sunday. “I’m as proud and inspired of him as I was 10 years ago.”

Jonathan spoke of the resolve he felt—coming from a family steeped in service—after 9/11 to do something, anything, to help.

“After hearing what volunteers did (at St. Paul’s), I knew this was my chance,” he said during his speech. “This is how I could give back. This is what I could do.”

He recalled his first act as a volunteer at St. Paul’s: Serving coffee to a mid-30s paramedic, Carlos Lopez, at the start of the day.

“He took the coffee, shook my hand, and thanked me. I was taken aback,” Jonathan said. “I did nothing special by being there. It was people like him who deserved my thanks.”

Jonathan’s father, Peter, a Moorestown firefighter, is president of the 200 Club and has organized the 9/11 service every year since 2006. He knew as far back as two years ago he wanted Jonathan to speak at the 10th anniversary service.

“It was very poignant, because being the youngest volunteer at Ground Zero brought it home as to what it means as a child, as a firefighter,” said Peter. “I can’t (express) that emotion, cause I wasn’t there.”

The purpose of the service is so people don’t forget, he said. Forgetting would be “a disservice” to the hundreds of emergency workers and the thousands of others who lost their lives that day.

Jonathan took it a step further in closing out his speech, suggesting the way to honor the dead is “not to ‘never forget … instead it is to ‘always remember.’

“The remembrance of the sacred moment when we raise up together to remember what normal people turned heroes did and what it took for them to do so … Remember what the American spirit is. Remember what it was like to see an American flag on almost every house. Remember what it was like when every stranger you saw held a door open. Remember how you hugged your family and friends just a little bit tighter because everyone cherished life that much more after Sept. 11 … I won’t forget that through all that horror and uncertainty the American spirit shown brighter than the devastation.”


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