Steve and Liz Alderman were vacationing with their next door neighbors in France, while I house sat for their neighbors dogs back in New York. It was there that they learned that back in New York their youngest son, Peter, who was at a conference at the Windows of The World, the very top of one of the World Trade Center Towers, when it collapsed. Just when they thought they had successfully achieved emptying their nest, and their young had flown off successfully, their lives were shattered.
The Aldermans arrived back home after weaving through the globe for several days due to the air traffic shut down. Their car arrived from the airport in the wee hours of the morning on a dark night. When I heard the car pull in the driveway, I cautiously went out to greet it. I will never forget the catatonic look on both Steve and Liz's face as they sat in the back seat, staring forward.
The Aldermans were not the only one's who lost loved ones that day as we well know. Many of the grieving survivors went on the create foundations, memorials and fight the evil they were confronted with by doing good. The Alderman's amaze and inspire me because they not only fought back against evil, they went out and sought to find those left as victims of evil and help them. Despite their own gut wrenching grief pain that they lived with, they began pulling those other survivors out of the trenches around the globe.
The Peter C. Alderman Foundation was established in 2002 in honor of their son Peter. The Foundation's mission is to is to heal the emotional wounds of survivors of terrorism and mass violence by training indigenous health workers and establishing trauma treatment systems in post-conflict countries around the globe.. Since it's inception, the foundation has established has touched the lives of victims of terrorism in Cambodia, Uganda, Rwanda, and Haiti. To Learn more about this heroic Foundation, please visit the website: www.petercaldermanfoundation.org
Do you have an inspirational superhero you want to tell us about? Enter my Inspiration Superhero GuestBlog contest: In 500 words or less, tell me about that person or persons who have not only managed to climb out of a deep canyon, but went on to hike to a mountaintop. I will select one guest blogger who will win a $25 Visa gift card and their entry will be posted on my weekly blog. The entry deadline is September 30, 2013. Email your blogpost to [email protected].