From Mequon, Wisconsin:

Man reflects on surviving Sept. 11

Six hundred sixty-two Cantor Fitzgerald employees worked on the top five floors of Tower One of the World Trade Center. Six hundred fifty-eight of them died on Sept. 11, 2001. Three escaped with severe burns and one walked out without a scratch.

That man was Ari Schonbrun.

Schonbrun gave a speech at the Peltz Center for Jewish Life in Mequon, Wis., Sunday afternoon entitled “Miracles and Fate on Floor Seventy-Eight.” He addressed how his experience on Sept. 11 caused him to re-examine his life and strengthen his faith as an Orthodox Jew.

Schonbrun told of how he assisted a critically injured co-worker down 78 flights of stairs after the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

Virginia DiChiara was riding in an elevator when the cable snapped and sparks ignited the jet fuel from the airplane. To escape the inferno, DiChiara jumped through the flaming elevator doors. She sustained third-degree burns. When Schonbrun found her, he said her skin was literally hanging off of her body.

Schonbrun was able to encourage DiChiara to walk down 78 flights of stairs and out of the building.

Upon exiting the building, Schonbrun located an ambulance for DiChiara, who was burned so badly paramedics had trouble sticking an IV in her vein.

DiChiara insisted Schonbrun come with her in the ambulance.

While DiChiara says Schonbrun saved her life, Schonburn said it was in fact she who saved his life.

Had she not insisted he accompany her to the hospital, Schonbrun said he would have been standing at the base of the tower when it collapsed.

“God gave me a second chance,” Schonbrun said. “He let me walk out of that building.”

Schonbrun said he believes God speaks in whispers, but we’re often too busy running through life to listen.

After his speech, the crowd gave Schonbrun a standing ovation.

“It was hard not to be touched,” said Rabbi Moshe Rapoport, program director of the Peltz Center for Jewish Life.

“He is an amazing man with an amazing story,” said Reva Edelstein of New Berlin, Wis. “We really must take heed to his message. God speaks to all of us.”

Schonbrun said though Sept. 11 was a tremendous tragedy, everyone must take something away from the event.

“The reality is if we don’t learn anything, it is twice the tragedy.”

From Pirtle, Texas:

Service comes near anniversary of 9/11

The horrific attacks of 9/11 shined a light on heroes like the ones honored Sunday at a church south of Kilgore.

“It’s wonderful,” Kilgore firefighter Michael Stanley said, after finding a seat for Hero Sunday at Pirtle United Methodist Church. Stanley, the fire prevention officer in the Kilgore Fire Department, was joined by more than 20 fellow firefighters, officers from the Kilgore police and Rusk County sheriff’s departments, crew members of Champion EMS ambulance service and family members.

It’s really great to have this recognition,” he said. “I’m a little bit in awe, because there were so many people … that really gave their lives in New York. Even with (hurricanes) Rita and Katrina, they were working on getting a (response) system up (as they worked). They were tragedies, but good has come out of all of it. They had a fire here at this church a couple of years ago. Our D Shift responded.”

The fire that destroyed the 160-year-old pioneer church’s original building, in May 2002, was one reason this congregation wanted to mark the sixth anniversary of 9/11 by honoring the local brethren of the first responders who flew into action when the twin towers fell.

“The heroes that responded (to the Pirtle fire) made a big difference,” the Rev. Dudley Plaisance Jr. told the congregation. “In our community, we see every day the activities by them for all the people in our community.”

Crim’s Chapel Volunteer Fire Department member Michael Searcy said the first responders in New York City had set the bar for a nation of men and women who dedicate themselves to saving lives and property.

“Really, what you saw on 9/11 (was) the selflessness, all the good qualities about them,” Searcy said. “And they gave their lives to something that looked impossible. And there’s no telling how many lives they saved.”

Outside the sanctuary, where several ambulance and firetrucks sat parked, four U.S. flags flanked the front door to greet the arriving heroes.

“I’ve been asked several times over the past few weeks, ‘What’s all that flag-waving going on over there at Pirtle?’ ” Plaisance said. “Something happened six years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001, that forever changed the way we look at our world. We had lots of heroes that day. Today we honor that.”