This past Saturday June 6, the gentle evening breeze wafting off the bay to the nearby historic Richard Mott House in Bayswater symbolically evoked hope and love at Tribute Park’s 9/11 Mosaic Fundraiser, hosted by artist and steadfast advocate, Patrick Clark. And as guests reveled in cocktails, fine wines and deliciously-curated hors d’oeuvres, plus an enchanting entertainment lineup of live Latin folk music and dance performances by Queens-based Mexican band, Añoranza —these lines of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Exhilaration is the Breeze” came to life: “Exhilaration is the Breeze. That lifts us from the Ground.” And this is what Clark and his cohorts at the Tribute Park Art Conservancy (T-P-A-C) are hoping for—to lift the community’s support from the ground up to refurbish the Park’s stained-glass dome and Navigator Star mosaic, located at Tribute Park on Beach 116th Street, facing Jamaica Bay. And even more significantly, this year will mark 25 years since more than 70 neighbors, including local FDNY first-responders, perished on that fateful day—September 11, 2001.
Tribute Park, a project funded through the community, opened in 2005, as a memorial to Rockaway neighbors lost on 9/11. The mosaic has served as the central piece in which community members and 9/11 families place roses on each anniversary during a solemn ceremony in partnership with the FDNY. Unfortunately, when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the salty floodwaters eroded much of the work Clark, and other artists such as Geoff Rawling did when building Tribute Park.
As reported by Katie McFadden in this year’s April 2 edition of The Rockaway Times: “For the past few years, the mosaic has been covered in tarp, due to years of deterioration… It seemed the mosaic had been forgotten, as it and the Park’s other art pieces, The Dome and Firefighter’s Rock, were left out of a major renovation of the Park in 2019. In October 2023, Community Board 14 overwhelmingly voted to restore the mosaic with more durable materials… And so began the mission of funding the project.”
However, at last Saturday’s event, though funding is slowly trickling in, Clark shared that he’s even more determined to never give up. The event, which he held at his house, the historic Richard Mott House, is the second he’s held with TPAC. This past April, a similar event was held at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club. The goal is to raise at least $150K for the Park’s mosaic restoration.
Clark said, “This community still honors our fallen heroes. It’s so important. Right after 9/11, the big quotation was: ‘Never forget.’ And as time goes on, and it’s now 25 years since 9/11, the whole community still stands together to honor them. The 9/11 Tribute Park is unique. I don’t think there’s any other community 9/11 park like this in NYC. Nothing compares. And that’s because there’s no community like Rockaway.
“And, so it’s been a tremendous amount of work putting together the fundraisers and plans for the restoration. It’s all-consuming, and it’s all happening while we’re trying to run our own businesses and make magic at work. It’s hard to juggle all those things. However, it’s important work that needs to be done, and now we have a board of directors for the Tribute Park Conservancy with young people invested in monitoring and protecting the memorials in the Park.”
One such young individual is Arthur Matuszewski, now in his 30s, who worked as an apprentice with Clark making stained glass windows.
He said, “I didn’t have an artistic bone in my body, but growing up, I worked on Tribute Park with Patrick. So, it really was a meaningful part of growing up because when he started, I was in seventh grade. When the towers came down, I remember running home to my parents when we lived near the park on Beach 118th Street. Then many months later, there were talks about putting the park together. I worked on the mosaic with him all through high school. And now 25 years later, seeing the park in bad shape was crushing for me personally. My parents still live nearby, so we always go for a walk and see it. I know it’s just stone and glass, but it’s about what it symbolizes for the Rockaway community.”
For Tom Sullivan, a Breezy Point resident, business owner and retired colonel in the Army Reserve, running as a Republican candidate for NYS Assembly District 23—restoring Tribute Park’s 9/11 Mosaic is even more personal.
Sullivan shared, “I worked in the World Trade Center and was there that morning on the 96th floor, and our company, now known as Franklin Templeton Fiduciary, lost 107 employees. I lost my center fielder, my third baseman—all childhood friends. The night before, I told friends that my wife and I were expecting twins. And so that day I went into work, normal time, and shot an email out to, I don’t know, 40, 50 people. And I wanted to go down to the 90th floor to tell my mentor the good news. I was talking to and laughing with my boss, Anthony. And then all of a sudden, it was like, what is that? He never made it out. I found out later that he went up to get his mother-in-law, who worked for the company.
“So, Patrick’s project, fundraising for Tribute Park’s 9/11 Mosaic means a lot for all of us who lost friends and family that day. I still get upset and don’t go a day without thinking of the people we lost. I’ll never forget my mentor who died that day.”
Clark pulled out all the stops for Saturday’s fundraiser. A member of the Mexican band, Añoranza, commented, “We’re here to draw attention to this tribute—honoring those who lost their lives in 9/11—and it’s Patrick’s goal to raise the funds needed to restore what got damaged in Hurricane Sandy. Rockaway is a special community that can build positive connections for all of us, from all over.”
Clark said, “The Department of Arts and Antiquities for NYC Parks has no interest in these memorials, and they’ve made it clear that they will not be preserving or maintaining them, so it falls on us and the Rockaway community to make sure they’re cared for correctly.”
To be a part of saving Tribute Park 9/11 Mosaic, visit: www.rockaways9-11tributepark.com. Tickets for the 50/50 raffle are still available.
