Helping Attack Victims’ Families

Pam Hewitt may live in Laguna Niguel, 3,000 miles and a cultural divide from the World Trade Center, but she wanted to help.

The families of the New York police officers and firefighters seemed taken care of through the massive outpouring of help and their department benefits. But what about the families of the janitors, the waiters and others killed when the towers collapsed, the people with no money, no pensions, no retirement--the people you didn’t hear about on TV?

Hewitt looked at the Web sites of United Way and the Red Cross, but they seemed gigantic. She wanted to connect more directly with someone who needed help.

Hewitt continued her search of the Web until she found Cyberangels, a New York volunteer group that fights cyberstalking and child porn on the Internet.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Cyberangels posted photos of the missing on its Web site and became an intermediary between the families and those with information. Cyberangels could filter out the crank calls, the people who would call and say, “They found your husband with another woman, and they didn’t have any clothes on.”

Cyberangels also began to connect people who wanted to help the families of the dead. Hewitt, a secretary for 20 years in the School of Humanities and Language at Irvine Valley College, e-mailed the group. She told them she wanted to help, she wanted to connect to a face.

“That’s how I feel,” she said. “I just didn’t want to write a check to an organization.” A half an hour later, Cyberangels e-mailed Hewitt, “We have the perfect family.”

Mexican Immigrant Left Behind Wife, 5 Children

It was the family of Jaime Concepcion, a 46-year-old Mexican immigrant who worked 107 floors up at the landmark Windows of the World restaurant, where he received deliveries. He left behind a wife with severe arthritis who cannot work and speaks no English and five children, ages 10 to 19.

Hewitt, 53, stuffed orange fliers in Irvine Valley mailboxes and hung them around campus. She sent an e-mail to faculty and staff. Since Oct. 1, the campaign has raised $1,570, with eight donations of $100, and will run to the end of the month.

Parry Aftab, who heads Cyberangels, says she has been inundated by people wanting to help, receiving about 2,000 e-mails a day from around the world. “They don’t want to give $1,000 to the Red Cross,” she said. “They want to touch somebody.”

She said 450 people have offered to sponsor the 120 families they are working with. A real estate company offered to donate office space.

“For a 50-year-old woman who’s overweight and can’t move rubble,” Aftab said, “this is the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”

Cyberangels learned of the Concepcions through a family friend who worked for a New York law firm. Using her broken Spanish, Aftab has spoken with the Concepcions. At first they didn’t want any assistance, feeling that would be admitting Jaime was dead, a fact his wife still hasn’t accepted.

Hewitt’s next step is to ask the student government for a donation Tuesday and the Faculty Senate on Thursday.

“I’ll tell them, give me the money. Make a difference in this family’s life.”

Donations may be sent to Pam Hewitt, Humanities Department, Irvine Valley College, 5500 Irvine Center Drive, Irvine, CA 92618. Checks should be made out to the Irvine College Foundation/Jaime Concepcion Fund.