EAST HANOVER, Pa. — Amid the hot, August heat, 64-year-old Paul "Paulie" Veneto is on a mission: To push an airline cart 300 miles in 30 days to Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Paulie's Push is an annual event where Veneto honors the flight attendants who died during the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He made his first push on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 when he walked from Logan International Airport in Boston to the site of the World Trade Center. Last year, he pushed his cart from Dulles International Airport to the Pentagon.
His third push is his longest, with his goal to travel from Newark-Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania by September 11.
Veneto said the actions of the Flight 93 crew members and passengers deserve more attention.
“They banded together and came up with a plan in a split-second time saying, ‘They’re not going to do this to us,’" said Veneto. "They were the last line of defense against terrorism that day, those passengers and crew members on 93.”
Through the blazing heat, rough gravel, and steep hills, Paulie draws motivation from the pictures of the flight attendants of Flight 93 and Flight 175.
“First thing I did on this cart was put their pictures on it because I wanted to look at their faces," said Veneto. "I feel it coming from these crew members [and] I get emotional. [I feel it] from them, through me, and out. It’s crazy.”
Many of those flight attendants were also his friends. Paulie was a flight attendant on Flight 175 the night before it crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center.
After struggling for years with addiction, Paulie is also pushing to inspire hope.
“For so many years, I was alone with those thoughts," said Veneto. "I was alone with them and there are plenty of people along these streets that are like that too.”
That message of hope and courage is traveling with him as he makes his way through Central Pennsylvania. Paulie said he wants all of America to honor 9/11’s first responders – the flight attendants and passengers aboard the planes that day.
“I just want to give comfort to their family members who were left behind, knowing that the public out here, and really the world knows what their loved one was able to accomplish under those conditions," said Veneto.