This isn’t meant as self-promotion, and I hope it doesn’t come off that way.
Working on this project now for six years, several times I’ve been caught by the coincidences that crop up.
The first year, while randomly assigning names, one participant wound up writing a tribute to someone who had lived in the house next door (though at different times). When I started Project 2,996 I didn’t know anyone who died that day–or any of their families. Sometime after I started the project I made friends with a family in my neighborhood, but it was another year until I discovered that my their BIL/Uncle had died in WTC1.
Last night I was struck by another coincidence. In the last few years I’ve taken up with a bagpipe band here in Raleigh–Wake & District Pipes & Drums–and I’m now part of the drumline. A few weeks ago when our Pipe Major asked for volunteers to play for the Jimmy V Gala to raise money for cancer research, I volunteered because…well, pipes & drums and then the pub on a Saturday night…what could be better?
It was only once I was at the Gala that I realized that the guests of honor this year were a group of 9/11 first responders and ground zero workers who have developed cancer.
In the video linked below, you can see the band playing (at the 0:16 mark)… I was right behind the Bass Drum, which comes into frame right as they cut away.
