Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LV businesses mark day with thoughtful events

A year after the terrorists hit the United States, Tanya Watler of Las Vegas still mourns her aunt who died in the attacks and what she calls an entire generation lost.

But Watler, a breast cancer survivor born and raised in Harlem, said she counts her blessings each day that she's still employed as a dispatcher at cable television company Cox Communications and is supporting efforts nationwide today to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary.

Many businesses throughout the Las Vegas Valley today marked the anniversary of the attacks either by observing moments of silence in honor of the victims, saying prayers and pledges of allegiance, playing patriotic music or making donations to charities.

More than 100 of Cox's 900 Las Vegas employees attended a tribute ceremony that began at the company's headquarters at 8:45 a.m. with the presentation of flags by a local chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars, and observed a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. -- the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

Cox employees also placed red, white and blue ribbons on what the company calls its Tree of Remembrance, a designated pine tree that will serve as a reminder to honor the victims of Sept. 11.

"President Bush had proclaimed Sept. 11 as Patriot Day. We expanded on that by proclaiming that day as Cox's Red, White and Blue day and encouraged our employees to wear those colors for the day," said Stephanie Stallworth, Cox's manager of public affairs. "We also instructed more than 370 field employees to drive with their headlights on for the entire day. And employees that need counseling can contact our Employee Assistance program."

Cox, as part of a cable industry-wide effort, will donate significant amounts of airtime today on more than 40 of its cable channels to national and local public service announcements in place of cable advertisements that were pulled to mark the anniversary.

Stallworth said Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co. Network, which owns Home and Garden Television and Food Network, today was broadcasting for three hours a blank screen with music and a rolling tribute of 9-11 victims on Cox Cable channels 64 and 42.

Last September, Watler and other Cox employees helped answer telephones to take pledges for VH1's Concert for New York National Relief Fund Telethon when Cox served as the telethon's West Coast call center.

Today Watler remembered her aunt, a 50-year-old legal secretary of a law firm located on the 98th floor of one of the Twin Towers, by being with her family and playing cards.

Watler, who said her family was still waiting for medical records on her aunt's remains, said she opposed proposals to commercially redevelop the former World Trade Center site.

"Putting up buildings on an area where so many people (have lost) their loved ones is just wrong," she said. "For weeks after the attacks, we tried every morgue, church and mental hospital hoping we'll find her. But after two months passed, we decided to hold a memorial for her."

"We can't bring back the ones that died. We can only remember them. If we remember what these people died for, then there's still some kind of hope for us," she said. "But 9-11 is definitely a wake-up call for us that we have to try to make our country better."

Watler said she was devastated not only by her aunt's violent death but also at the magnitude of the disaster when she visited Ground Zero after the attacks.

"A lot of people don't realize how big the area is. To actually have two huge buildings come down is devastating. That's like the Mirage disappearing from the Las Vegas Strip," she said. "When I was living in Harlem, I could see the Twin Towers when I woke up every morning. Now that's gone."

Ike Moore, a Cox employee relations manager who's also a retired Air Force pilot, said Sept. 11 was a call to action for the military.

"Last September, I'd only been off active duty for four months and after 9-11 I was expecting to get recalled but it didn't happen," Moore said. "But for some of my friends who were due to leave, they were required to stay (in the Air Force) for another year. But if the phone rang and I was asked to come back, I would do so in a heartbeat."

Rosemary Zwiesler, a Cox employee for 4 1/2 years, said it is important to remember the events of that terrible day because they caught everyone off guard.

"Since 9-11, we've had to be on guard every day," she said. "In the past, we've been too comfortable living the good life. Liberty means so much more today and people are recognizing that fact."

The Greenspun family, owner of the Las Vegas Sun, is a minority investor in Cox's Las Vegas operation.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas commercial real estate lender Vestin Group will mark Sept. 11's anniversary by making donations from the company's coffers that are equal to 1 percent of investments made by Clark County residents from Sept. 11 through Oct. 11 in one of Vestin's real estate-backed investment funds.

Steve Schneider, vice president and chief operating officer of Vestin Group, said the 51-employee company is hoping to donate at least $50,000 each to two non-profit organizations, Las Vegas Firefighters' Benefit Association and the Injured Police Officers Fund.

Schneider said the company donated $5,000 to each of the two funds in August.

He said difficulties faced by a Vestin employee in obtaining workers' compensation for an injury he sustained when he as a policeman were a key factor behind the company's donations.

"That Vestin employee was formerly a police officer in San Diego who was injured on the job while he was there," he said. "The benefits offered to him just weren't adequate. We don't want our firefighters and police in Las Vegas to go through same thing."

"We'll contribute $1 of our monies for every $100 that investors invest in the fund," he said. "No investor funds will be used. Donations are strictly from Vestin Group."

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