Local woman remembers 9/11 ‘like it was yesterday’

The day after Sept. 11, 2001, Susan Vernille saw people at her business that she has never seen before — or since.

“It was amazing ... It was like everyone that day needed to do something, and we gave them an outlet,” Vernille said.

She says she couldn’t have known the response would be so overwhelming when, after getting a call from a contact in New York City Sept. 12, telling her that firemen and policemen helping out at Ground Zero in New York City were sleeping literally in the streets, she went to local media outlets to ask for donations of bedding and water. She hoped to fill one truck with donations.

“It was the most unbelievable thing,” Vernille said. “People were going to stores and buying pillows and blankets and dropping them off. We even got a large donation of military cots and sleeping bags.”

The front of the store, New York Police Supply, 1460 E. Ridge Road, Irondequoit, that she operates with partner Michael Cohn quickly became filled with donations — then volunteers sorting those donations.

They ended up sending six tractor trailer trucks, four of them donated — with drivers — by Wegmans,  full of donations to New York City.

“And it was all done within 12 to 15 hours on Sept. 12,” said Vernille, of Webster. “It was like a whirlwind, but it was also a busy calm ... I remember standing indoors, watching all the people, and just wanting to cry ... You never think something like that (the Sept. 11 attacks) is going to happen. It was one of those memories that’s once in a lifetime.”

Today, Vernille says the 10-year anniversary “brings back all those feelings.” And, she admits, “the anniversary scares me ... We think we’re safer, but maybe we’re not.”

She also always wanted to say “thank you to everybody for helping,” Vernille added, “so maybe this is my chance. It was such a life-changing day, but it was a fantastic volunteer effort ... I remember that day like it was yesterday.”