Todd Bosma is the Assistant Director of Game Operations for the Portland Trail Blazers. Todd is letting Blazers fans take a peek into the BCB New York trip through his personal journal entries.

November 11, 2001 - 8:00 am PST
November 11, 2001 - 10:30 pm EST
November 12, 2001 - 8:00 am EST
November 13, 2001 - 9:45am EST
November 13, 2001 - 5:45pm EST
November 14, 2001 - 8:45am EST

Tuesday– November 13, 2001

9:45am (EST)

Well the longest day on the planet continues as we arrive back at our hotel about a half an hour ago. It’s funny to think that around 26 hours ago I was rolling out of bed ready for the challenges that lay ahead. That’s right I have been awake for the past 26 hours - and still going strong! Let me catch you up to speed.

As you can read from my previous entry, we ate at the firehouse. I apologize for the quickness of it. I was frantically writing it while we were eating dinner. There were a couple more stories I wouldn’t mind sharing with you, and hopefully there will be time to get to them in this entry. Anyway, we left the firehouse and headed up to Brooklyn to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Headquarters where we filled out numerous forms just to be cleared to head down to Ground Zero. We were at headquarters around 11:00pm, and got our paperwork taken care of; then it was onboard a bus around 11:45 heading toward the disaster site.

We were nervous and excited as to what we were about to encounter. Yes, we were apprehensive about having a shift that ran from midnight to 8:00am, but that is what we are here for right? We had a short orientation where we got a brief description about the numerous jobs we were to do while on call. They said we were going to rotate through all the jobs, but with it being Veteran’s Day and with all that had happened with the plane crash in Rockaway, there wasn’t too much action at the respite center, so we stayed at our assigned jobs.

Nick and Melinda G. were in charge of assigning exhausted workers cots and giving wake-up calls on the second floor of the building. Angie and Melinda M. were assigned kitchen duty where they were responsible for dishing up pies and serving cookies as well as numerous other tasks that are too many to list here. What you do need to know is that they had to wear hairnets, and boy did they look good in them.

Beverly and John we assigned the dinning room. There they wandered about the tables where they helped pick up any miscellaneous trash items, emptied trash cans and re-stocked foodstuffs that were running low. Theressa and Dick V. also had a hand in the general dining room duties but also spent a good deal of time at the beverage station where they doled out all the soda, water, juice and Powerade the workers wanted.

Jim had an extra special job, as he was the "tray man." He was in charge of washing all the dinner trays after the workers used them. Jim loved this job as we were able to reminisce about his college days (at U of O - Go Ducks - he had to get that in) where he washed dishes for a sorority to earn extra cash. Erin (Sam & Nick - your Mom says hello!) and Marta were assigned to "The Oasis." The Oasis is a room for the men and women to go and unwind. In this room there are bunches of lounge chairs, about 6 TV’s, 4 Playstation 2 video games and around 8 computers where the guys go on-line and check their E-Mail or just see what is going on in the world around them. This was by far the most popular room (except for the dinning room when breakfast was served - around 4:30am).

Jerry and I chose to do the majority of our work outside. We were on Boot Cleaning duty. There is so much dust and dirt at ground zero that when the workers walk into the center, they bring it in the building with them. Jerry and I were stationed at one end of the block and everyone who wanted to enter the Respite Center had to walk through our walkway. Jerry and I did just what our job title says, boot cleaning. We had 3 hoses with us and the workers would walk up to us and lift their feet so we could see the soles of their shoes and hose them down to get the dust off. It was a great job as we got to talk to everyone who entered the building during our shifts (we were on boot cleaning from 1:00am - 2:00am, 4:00am - 5:30am and 6:30 - 8:00am). We even treated some of the workers to a song as we were cleaning their boots; we got a lot of smiles and many expressions of thanks. One group of workers even offered to go inside and bring us out some food! It was good to see the workers walking up to you with their heads down, looking exhausted and then they would walk by our station and would have a smile on their face and a little more bounce in their step.

As we were talking to the people walking past, we noticed little things on their uniforms depicting where they were from. I would say about a third of all the workers that passed through our gates were NOT from New York. In fact, as we were walking to the center at the beginning of our "tour," a guy yelled at us from across the street - "Hey are you guys from Portland?" And we said - You bet! He responded, "I’m from Seattle!" We high-fived one another as he had things to get to and so did we, but it was good to see the Pacific Northwest represented by more than just us. As you mathematicians out there probably have figured out by now, because around a third of the people that walked past us weren’t from New York, that means that two thirds of those who passed us by were from New York. Do you know what that means?? It means that Jerry & I heard HOWYADOIN’ about 100,000 times today.

In our orientation we were told that we were to stay within the confines of our building, or at the most within our block (the city block we were on was actually split in half, so we only could go on the sidewalk on our half of the block). There was a building between the Respite Center and ground zero, so even though you were outside, you couldn’t see anything except a couple of big cranes that weren’t used while we were there. As we were ended up our last shift (around 7:30am) one of the volunteers came up to me and said he was about ready to leave. I thanked him for having us here, and he looked around and said - "I’m am going to take over for you for about five minutes." I looked at him and responded, "Thanks man, but I’m okay." He looks me in the eye and says, "No, I’m going to take over for you and you are going to take a walk to the end of the block (the end that was off-limits) and get yourself a look.

Now during our orientation they scared us silly about staying within the confines of our "block" and if we were caught outside our zone we could be arrested and could face a fine of up to $10,000. So, needless to say I was a little hesitant to accept his offer. He just stared at me and gave a little nod of his head to usher me on my way. I mean, what are you gonna do right? So I took off down to the forbidden end of the block. I got to the end and looked. All I have to say is WOW - you can’t even put it into words. You see it on TV, but it’s just not the same being a block away and not having anything standing in your way between the wreckage. They are still putting water on the rubble, it’s still smoking and the firefighters we had spent some time with said that it most definitely was still on fire, and could be for as long as a year after September 11th.

It was unbelievable, I just stood there on the corner, frozen – unable to move. Just standing their staring. Eventually I came back and hustled to my station. I couldn’t have thanked my man for suggesting that I do that - he really looked out for me on that one. I think I was the only one out of our group that made it to that corner; I was just in the right place at the right time I guess.

Our shift came to a close shortly after that and we were back on the bus heading to the hotel. As I said earlier we got to the hotel around 9:15am. Spending the previous hour and a half spraying boots out in the cold I was freezing, so I took a nice hot shower to start to feel normal again.

Well it’s now 11:00am, meaning I have been up for 27.5 hours straight - time for a nap?? I DON’T THINK SO!! We have an hour to get something to eat (I think I had a bowl of cereal at the Respite center at 2:00am) and get ready to meet the bus at 12:15 to take us to a high school where we can do 2 clinics for a total of 250 kids. Naps, we no need no stinkin’ naps!!

I’ll write more after the clinic. Oh do you want to know who was the first to drop during our 8-hour shift at the respite center?? NO ONE! That’s right, everyone was up and about for the full time. That just proves what an absolute ALL-STAR group we have with us!! However if you look at the bus ride back, I think it‘s a photo finish between Melinda M and Marta for the first to doze off.

Tuesday– November 13, 2001

5:25pm (EST)

Back in the hotel again, it’s now 5:25pm, that means I am currently into my 33.5 straight hour of being awake. Now, I’m not the only one who is putting in all these hours, everyone of our crew are out here working hard! Yeah some of them have been able to sneak away and get an hour here or an hour there, but those hours don’t really do much for you. Why am I not asleep now? Well the bus is coming to pick us up for the Blazers/Knicks game in about a half an hour. -- oops, gotta go!