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About Us

Since 9/11, we have been helping America’s heroes by providing mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building custom-designed smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. We are also committed to eradicating veteran homelessness and aiding the victims of major U.S. disasters.

Volunteers Impacting The Foundation

When he heard the story of Stephen Siller’s dramatic run from the foot of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, Mike Pelliccio, a member of the Bayonne Fire Department, knew that he would participate in the annual NYC Tunnel to Towers Run & Walk each and every year. Pelliccio was prompted to do more than participate after he viewed the videos of the catastrophically injured service members on our website, and saw how the smart homes they receive change their lives. Convinced that raising funds to support the Foundation would be a good way to get his community and local businesses involved, Pelliccio starting by reaching out to family and friends, the police and fire department unions in Bayonne, and by using social media to get the message out.

Michael Pelliccio

U.S. Marine Michael Larson is a Tunnel to Towers Foundation volunteer who is a part of the Foundation's Young Professionals Network, which is dedicated to connecting younger generations to the mission of the Foundation through events, fundraising, and professional mentoring to ensure that generations to come Never Forget. Michael has always had a passion for service instilled into him by his father who served as a Police Officer in the Chicago Police Department for 30 years. Michael was a young child in the 5th grade on September 11, 2001, and he remembers the profound effect the attacks on America had on his community, where nightly candlelight vigils were held, and on the rest of the country. The attacks on America that day, one of the darkest days in our country’s history, served as the catalyst that led Michael to enlist in the military to serve and protect the citizens of our great nation. In the 11th grade, a Marine Corps recruiter visited his high school and inspired him to sign up in the military. Larson first joined the U.S. Navy and then he was commissioned in the Marine Corps for 7 years. While stationed in California, Michael saw a commercial about Tunnel to Towers and decided that he wanted to donate and support the Foundation's programs. It was then that he discovered the Foundation’s Young Professionals Network and learned that he could get more involved with the Foundation through it. He became part of the network in 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Michael assisted Tunnel to Towers in feeding the thousands of National Guardsmen who were at the United States Capitol; the servicemembers in the National Guard were incredibly grateful to Michael Larson and the rest of the Tunnel to Towers team for providing hot meals while they were there. Michael is excited to continue to be a part of the Young Professionals Network as one of the Foundation's amazing and dedicated volunteers, and he is looking forward to running in the Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk NYC on September 26, 2021.

Michael Larson

As she has done every year since 2012, Laurie Rudnick pulled up her striped socks and put on her Team Vigiano t-shirt, paired with her red, white, and blue tutu. But while the outfit was the same, this year, everything else would be different. Laurie would typically be preparing for the annual Tunnel to Towers 5k Run & Walk NYC, which takes runners through the then Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to Ground Zero to retrace FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller’s final steps on 9/11. Each year, her participation honors her cousins, FDNY firefighter John Vigiano II and NYPD detective Joseph Vigiano, who also gave their lives that day. The event typically draws more than 30,000 participants, but was cancelled this year due to citywide COVID-19 restrictions. Participants, like Laurie, were instead encouraged to take part in the Foundation’s newly launched Never Forget Virtual Challenge to honor the 9/11 fallen. And that’s exactly what she did. In the face of a global pandemic, Laurie was determined to safely get her family and friends together to keep the tradition alive. “Even if we walked around the block 20 times, I vowed that we will do every year, and that we would never forget,” Laurie said. With sunny and warm weather in the forecast, Laurie gathered her sister, parents, and friends in Eisenhower Park on Long Island and a teammate mapped out their own 5K route. One thing that was never in question was wearing her annual race outfit, red white and blue regalia from her head to her feet. “When I wear this in the race, it’s expected. At Eisenhower Park on a random Saturday, I was quite the spectacle,”Laurie said. The members of Team Vigiano weren’t the only ones in the park that morning, there was also a platoon of Marines. “I said look, the Marines are here! It feels like the real run. As we made our way back I heard someone yell my name, and it happened to be my cousin Joe. He was with his platoon doing drills that day,” said Laurie. Joe, who had run with the team in 2019, recognized his cousin’s outfit and called out to her, making the event even more of a family affair. The signature outfit also helped Laurie share her story with strangers in the park who asked her questions. One person even took a picture. “There is a photo of me with a stranger out there somewhere,” Laurie laughed. For Laurie, these random encounters are a chance to tell stories about her cousins and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which is helping Gold Star and fallen first responder families and catastrophically injured veterans across the country. “They have been gone for 19 years. I have a million stories, but that’s all I have left. It’s good to use our cousins’ names and their stories to do good for the people that are still here.” The Tunnel to Towers Foundation would like to thank Laurie, her family and friends for keeping the promise America made 19 years ago, to Never Forget. You can also help to keep that promise and do good by donating to Tunnel to Towers at t2t.org.

Laurie Rudnick

Caitlyn McIntyre, pictured second from the right, is a volunteer with the Tunnel to Towers Young Professional Network— a network dedicated to connecting younger generations to the mission of the Foundation through events, fundraising, and professional mentoring to ensure that generations to come Never Forget the attacks on September 11, 2001. Caitlyn’s father was Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD) Police Officer Donald James McIntyre who perished on September 11th, 2001 when he and 36 other members of the PAPD rushed to Ground Zero to save countless lives that day. Caitlyn also lost her uncle, John Sherry, who was a broker in the World Trade Center. Caitlyn is a registered nurse (RN) in a Manhattan Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Caitlyn’s first introduction to the Foundation was at the 2019 Tunnel to Towers Tower Climb New York City, and this was where she learned of the Young Professionals Network. Each year since 2015, the Tunnel to Towers has held the Tunnel to Towers Tower Climb NYC at One World Observatory at One World Trade Center, where over 1,000 participants climb 104 stories, symbolizing strength, hope, and the resiliency of the American spirit; this event commemorates the lives and sacrifice of all of our heroic first responders who made the ultimate sacrifice on September 11th, 2001, including New York City Fire Department Firefighter Stephen Siller and Captain Billy Burke. The Tower Climb was an exhilarating experience for Caitlyn, and it was a hallmark volunteer event with the Young Professionals Network. While completing the Tower Climb, she was in awe of the wounded U.S. Veterans of all military branches who were racing past her on the climb; Caitlyn was inspired by the tenacity of the wounded Veterans who succeeded in getting to the top of the Tower Climb ahead of her. She was overcome with emotion when she reached the top. Her experience as a surviving line of duty child came full circle when she completed the climb that her father made 20 years ago when he ran into the collapsed buildings on September 11th, 2021. Caitlyn has answered a medical call to serve her community similar to how her father, PAPD Police Officer Donald James McIntyre, answered the call to serve and protect travelers from New York and New Jersey who travel by land, sea, air, and rail. Caitlyn knew that she wanted to give back not only professionally through her work as an RN, but also as a dedicated volunteer to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation; she wanted to help surviving families of first responders like her own, whose fathers, mothers, husbands, and wives laid down their lives in the of duty to help citizens to safety. Caitlyn is eternally grateful to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation for establishing the COVID-19 Heroes Fund that supplied frontline workers with essential PPE supplies, hot meals, and financial relief to the families with young children of frontline workers who passed from COVID-19. In September of 2019, Caitlyn participated in the annual Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk NYC that is held each year on the last Sunday in September; the 5K Run & Walk NYC retraces Stephen Siller’s final footsteps from the foot of the then Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the Twin Towers and pays homage to the 343 FDNY Firefighters, 71 Law Enforcement Officers, and thousands of civilians who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001. Caitlyn had never run in the Foundation’s 5K event before, and she had an overwhelmingly emotional experience as a first-time runner. When she crossed the finish line past the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, another Tunnel to Towers volunteer stood holding a flag with a picture of her father, Police Officer Donald James McIntyre. It was an incredibly bittersweet, unexpected, and monumental moment for her to see her dad’s face as she crossed the finish line while running in his memory. This year, Caitlyn is especially looking forward to running again in the Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk NYC, and she is excited to participate in future events like the Tunnel to Towers Young Professionals Network “Spinning for Our Soldiers” SoulCycle that took place in Tribeca on June 23rd, 2021.

Caitlyn McIntyre

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