BY FLUGUE JOSEPH, JR.
On September 11, 2025 Artie Regan, Volunteer Advisor for the 9/11 Helping Hand Foundation, walked past the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where a ceremony was taking place to honor the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center, for the 24th year running.
Police had most of the event cornered off, with ceremony access being exclusively for direct families and friends of victims. With an American flag held high, Artie pressed on, as people showed their support with honks and words of hello and good wishes. This was the halfway point of his journey.
“New York will never forget, I’m not going to forget, I was impacted greatly by the events of 9/11,” Regan said. His office at 90 West Street was in the only surviving building just to the south of the south tower. “My offices were located in that building,” he said. “Two people died in that building, but my people all got out safely. So, I came down here on September 12th, 2001 as a search and rescue volunteer. Spent four hours on the pile. And that day in 911 changed my life so immeasurably that doing a walkathon once a year to remember it is the least I can do.”
For the last 24 years, Mr. Regan has held a walkathon every year to honor those who have lost lives. In years past there would be a multitude of people participating on this walk. However, this year Mr. Regan was the only one who was available to attend. Rather than cancel the walkathon Mr. Regan decided to continue the tradition regardless, and so he did.
Originally the path that he walked with his American flag would be to Central Park. But this year, his mission was to walk from Battery Park to Point Thank You. It is located at the junction of Christopher and West Street, a small crosswalk island in the middle of the bustling West Side highway nicknamed Hero’s Highway. He wanted to spend time with the people who stood and held signs at the intersection, signs of hope and encouragement, lending support to their fellow Americans with a simple gesture, a dedication of time.
Standing there 25 years later is Tarpley S. Mott, sign in hand simply saying, “Keep it Up”. Mr. Mott was not the first to start the tradition of showing support at Point Thank You, but now all these years later he’s one of the original volunteers that was standing on a location night and day for a weeks after the initial attack, acting as a beacon of support, to all the clean-up workers and emergency service workers who had the monumental task of going though ground zero for body recovery and debris clean up.
“It was like a parade almost at first… a lot of people were out here… but it got lighter and lighter and fewer people were here till it got down to me and two other guys that were here from Ohio,” Mott said. “I was here three, four in the morning alone because I didn’t want to go back home. He recalled that as he kept vigil that night, “Suddenly this whole convoy of busses go by, of people that were working, and they were exhausted. Unfortunately there was nobody else here. So I greeted them. I got to tell people when these busses would come back. And so then came back for a number of weeks. I’d sleep for the afternoon, for 2-3 hours, and then come back.”
Mr. Mott was accompanied by fellow longstanding volunteers including his wife Patrice Boyd.
“The people who were involved in this (Point Thank You) never expected such a positive invitation. People who work for Verizon and who were down there in debris and seeing these unimaginable…the sanitation workers, it was tremendous to them to be to be thanked for doing it.”
Barbara Rhodes standing with the American flag in hand, recounted how she came to Point Thank You. “I heard about this like three weeks after and decided I would come check it out. And it was just such a great experience. I hadn’t been here very long when a car full of cops stopped and gave us donuts. For a while, it was just like us and the official vehicles on the street. So, it was a little bit of a bond. Now it’s just occasionally there’s somebody who knows why we’re here.”
Even though no one kept close contact with each other the camaraderie was strong they talked about the memories they made together. How it was so cold on New Year’s Day 2001 the cold would cut through your shoes and come up your spine. How the rain wouldn’t bother them, and they’d wear garbage bags as there only form of protection.
Now 24 years later they still have the same message of support and solidarity as the first few weeks when disaster struck. Compassion and empathy for their community, showing others that they are not facing their challenges in vain and there are people thinking about them every step of the way, the heroes of “Hero Highway” still live on.
