Led by Mineola restaurauteur Tony Lubrano, 80 Nassau County residents recently raised $6,000 by taking part in an annual run in Manhattan to memorialize the 343 New York City firemen who died in the Twin Towers on Sept. 11.
“This was a cause that everybody could relate to. We thought this was the ideal starting point for an event to support,” Lubrano said.
Lubrano helped organize the residents’ participation in the annual Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers run on Sept. 29 through the United Mavericks, a group of a dozen or so Nassau residents and businessmen who support causes brought by fellow members.
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation is named for a firefighter who ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel on Sept. 11 to the World Trade Towers with his gear on in response to the attack on the twin towers, and died while assisting others. The Tunnel to Towers run retraces his 3.1 mile route through the tunnel that day.
“We’re hoping this is a good start. We hope more people will get involved next year,” Lubrano said of the United Mavericks’ support of the run.
The Siller foundation, which supports a range of charities, drew 30,000 people and raised $2 million from the participants and their sponsors at the run.
Lubrano and Mineola resident Harry Zapiti, another Maverick, operate the annual Night on the Town at Jericho Terrace in Mineola, which raises money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society – a cause close to Lubrano’s heart. Lubrano’s father, Pasquale died of leukemia seven years ago.
Lubrano said he suggested that the United Mavericks participate in the annual Tunnel to Towers run after learning about the event.
“It was really awe-inspiring. Some people chanted ‘USA’. It was just a very moving event,” Lubrano said.
Zapiti said he was particularly moved when the runners came through the tunnel and saw a phalanx of New York City firemen, some wearing jackets of fellow firefighters who perished on Sept. 11, and all bearing banners with the names and pictures of the fallen firemen on them.
“It was a wonderful feeling when you walk out of the tunnel and saw the fireman standing there with all the people’s names and face, it reminded you what it was all about,” Zapiti said. “It made you glad you could participate in the event.”
On the morning of the event, people planning to run gathered at Piccola Bussola to take buses into the city. They were greeted at the restaurant by members of the Mineola and New Hyde Park Fire Departments, who had suspended an American flag across Jericho Turnpike on an arch created with ladders from two fire trucks.
Lubrano thanked both fire departments for the send-off at last week’s Mineola Village Board meeting.
Garden City resident Nick Valastro said he organized the United Mavericks four years ago as an “eclectic” group of “maverick-type people.”
He said he agrees with Lubrano and Zapiti that Tunnels to Towers should be a Mavericks mainstay.
“We thought they’ve done such great job we should embrace and support it on a regular basis. Although it reminds us of a sad time, we think it’s important for the people who made a sacrifice to be remembered,” Valastro said.
He said the effort was an inspirational one for those who took part in it.
“It was such a great feeling to get good people together for that event on a Sunday morning. It’s kind of like an enlightenment for them,” Valastro said. “It just sort of opened something inside them.”
Valastro said the Mavericks next event is the Walk for Pancreatic Cancer at Jones Beach in Oct. 13.
Autism and diabetes research are also on the Mavericks’ list of causes, according to Valastro.
“Each member is responsible to do an event for a charity that’s near and dear to them,” he said.
Valastro said that while the Mavericks have been an informal organization thus far he hopes the group will eventually establish its own foundation.
