911 Story that Inspired "Come from Away" - American Story with Bob Dotson скачать в хорошем качестве

911 Story that Inspired "Come from Away" - American Story with Bob Dotson

3/11/2002 Lewisporte, Canada - Americans open their hearts and wallets all the time, but rarely do we hear about what the world gives to us and that seems just as important. On the eve of 9/11 there were some villages in Newfoundland, Canada, where unemployment hovered as high as fifty percent, but that remote island in the North Atlantic—Canada’s poorest province—set a mark for charity, worthy of the history books. I was one of the first to tell their story, traveling to Newfoundland as winter set in. Later, it became a hit Broadway musical. After the attack on the World Trade Center, pilots flying from Europe were told to put their planes on the ground as soon as possible. 38 airliners with more than six thousand passengers ended up in Gander, Newfoundland. School bus drivers were on strike, but they left their picket lines and worked 24 hours straight to take the stranded travelers to nearby towns. Passengers thought they were being dropped off at the end of the earth, but they couldn’t have been made to feel more at home. The tiny coastal town of Lewisporte canceled classes, so visitors could use school computers to send messages home. Since their luggage was still locked on the planes, passengers were given coins to wash their clothes at the Laundromat. Those who needed prescriptions were taken to pharmacies for free medicine, while townspeople worked through the night, baking them fresh bread. 176 people slept on church pews. Honeymooners got the choir loft all to themselves. If the passengers had simply stayed in that church until their planes were ready to leave, there wouldn’t be much of a story, but the people of Lewisporte pulled the travelers out, sailed them around the bay in their boats and invited them to sleep in their homes. Susan and Trevor Tetford took in two New York City couples with babies. Trevor tossed his keys to a total stranger and told him to use his car. When their Delta flight was finally able to leave Newfoundland, passengers passed the hat. 218 fliers pledged $35,000 to start a scholarship fund for Lewisporte’s children. Back then only 1/4th of Lewisporte’s kids graduated high school, so the money was awarded not just to a star student or two, but divided among every senior who made straight A’s. All this because some people in a faraway place were kind to strangers who happened to be Americans. Most people only witnessed the tragic events of 9/11. It was their fate to live it. They took care of those passengers, rubbing away pain with small talk, taking little moments and making them big. Those Canadians traded times that were all right for the ones that were terrible. The tragedy passed. Their kindness never left. What if they had not done anything? America survives and thrives because of all those names we don’t know, seemingly ordinary people who do extraordinary things. They don’t run for president or go on talk shows, but without them, the best of America would not exist. Bob Dotson is the author of four books, including the New York Times best-selling “American Story: A Lifetime Search for Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things.” (Penguin/Random House) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo... The latest edition of his classic, “Make It Memorable: Writing and Packaging Visual News with Style” became Amazon’s best-selling journalism book. It is being studied on 26 campuses and in newsrooms around the world. (Roman & Littlefield.) https://www.amazon.com/Make-Memorable...