More than 300 firefighters gave their lives trying to save others at the world Trade Center last 9/11. One of them was Danny Suhr from Engine Company 216 in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Dan Suhr was a NY Daily News all-city lineman in his own high school days, and continued to serve as an assistant coach to his lifetime friend Tommy Salvato, the coach at South Shore High School in Brooklyn, one of the schools in the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame's Play It Smart program. The team wrote his name and engine company number on their wristbands -- they shouted his name and 216 and 9/11as they tried to play on without him last year.
And now all of South Shore High School has gone a step further -- in committing to the Freedom's Answer program in Danny Suhr's memory. Freedom's Answer, a national non-partisan and non-profit effort, is designed to produce the largest-ever voter turnout, thereby sending send an unmistakable message to the perpetrators of 9/11: Freedom is alive and well in America.
With community service playing a central role in Play It Smart, the connection to Freedom's Answer seemed natural, and Jim Presbrey, the National Director of Play It Smart, was the first to suggest that Friday night football would be an ideal way to reach the community with Freedom's Answer. Academic Coaches are using Freedom's Answer as an activity where Play It Smart kids can take a leadership role in strengthening citizenship in America. Through Freedom's Answer, Play It Smart participants will have an opportunity to engage in a variety of activities designed to seek voting pledges from parents, grandparents, friends and neighbors to vote on November 5th.
Charles Gomes worked along side of Coach Suhr at South Shore High School for three years as the Play It Smart Academic Coach. Gomes put it this way: "Nothing we can do will bring Danny back, but we can live true to his memory -- and to those who lost their lives on 9/11 and those risking their lives now for our freedom. All we are asking is for everyone to care enough to vote; that doesn't seem like a lot when you realize that Danny and so many others have given everything they ever had."
To learn more about Freedom's Answer, visit: Freedom's Answer
