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GOETZ SCHOOL PAYS TRIBUTE TO 9-11 ANNIVERSARY IN ARTWORK
By Keith Hagarty
 | | Goetz Middle School Principal Faith Lessig and Charles Szurnicki stand proudly next to the school's 9-11 art display. The artwork is comprised of painted tiles from students depicting their emotions in commemoration of the five year anniversary. |
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Charles Szurnicki remembers being at work five years ago, standing across the East River on the morning of 9-11 when America came under a terrorist attack.
"I was actually on the job and somebody had pointed-because I was up on the hill-and from that hill, which is the highest point on the east coast at the time, you could see the World Trade Center and all the smoke from there," said Szurnicki, who worked at the Staten Island landfill at the time.
Szurnicki used his personal experience of the pain and shock he felt that day to lend a hand at Goetz Middle School in their artistic display, which commemorates the five-year anniversary of 9-11. The piece is comprised of 64 tiles painted by past sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students of the school reflecting pictures symbolic of their thoughts and emotions about the tragedy.
In addition, this year the students each wrote a brief message of how 9-11 touched their lives in paper hearts displayed throughout the halls of the school.
Szurnicki wife, Mary, was working as a paraprofessional in one of the school's art classes this year, when she came across the multitude of artistic tiles created by the students last year. When she learned that the school staff had no idea who would display those pieces, she immediately thought of her husband, who jumped at the chance to help out, taking each tile and assorting them into a 9-11 pattern ready to be hung in the school for years to come.
Helping to create the display has special meaning for Szurnicki who was involved in the forensic recovery effort for the New York Department of Sanitation.
"It was pretty glum, pretty sad," he said of his duties, which involved helping out in the search for remains of victims who perished in the World Trade Center. "If anybody else had done that, it would've been the same way. I was a small cog in a big wheel."
Szurnicki was impressed by the efforts of the students and the thought and care that went into their artwork.
"I think they did a great job," he said. "To be honest with you, I think they're the real heroes. They did the whole job really; otherwise, it never would've even gotten started."
Which tiles were his personal favorites? Szurnicki took the diplomatic road.
"Everyone one of them was really good," he said.
Finding a way to commemorate the anniversary of such a significant day in the history of our nation is what being a part of the community is truly all about for Szurnicki.
"I've been in the town for nearly 19 years now," he said. "So my name will be up there forever. It feels good."
With many of the students in the school too young to even fully comprehend or remember exactly what 9-11 was all about five years ago, Szurnicki believes it's important to keep the memory alive, and art has the powerful affect to help achieve that.
"I think it's a great thing that they're involved because if we don't get them involved, then who's going to teach them the history of what's happened in this country?" Szurnicki posed. "Who's going to carry it on? Who's going to remember? We're not supposed to forget this."
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