September 11, 2001

Carnegie Hero Fund Commission Grants $100,000
In Honor Of September 11 'Heroes Of Civilization'

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, September 5, 2002 — The CARNEGIE HERO FUND COMMISSION announced today that grants of $50,000 are being given to each of two charitable foundations established in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror strikes to provide assistance to those affected by the tragedy. The recipients are:

•  The Todd M. Beamer Foundation (www.heroicchoices.org), of Cranbury, N.J., established to help children experiencing family trauma to become healthy, productive, and responsible adults by making "heroic choices every day," and
 
•  The September 11, 2001 Children's Fund, Inc. (www.911childrensfund.org), of Red Hook, N.Y., established to provide scholarships, apprenticeships, and other programs to children directly affected by the terror strikes at the three sites, in New York, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa.
 
•  Commission President Mark Laskow said that the grants are being made in honor of "those countless who gave of themselves, in many cases sacrificially, to secure the safety of others," notably at the site of the World Trade Center and aboard United Airlines Flight 93. Beamer himself was one of the flight's passengers acknowledged to have contested control of the jetliner by the terrorists.

"These rescuers represent whom Andrew Carnegie called the 'heroes of civilization,'" Laskow said, "They stand in stark contrast to the barbarism of those who take the lives of others for their own purposes, and we are humbled by their selflessness."

The Commission is a private operating foundation established in 1904 by Carnegie to recognize persons throughout the United States and Canada who risk their lives saving or attempting to save the lives of others. A resolution adopted by the Commission to honor the September 11 heroes was issued on October 5, 2001.

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