Nearly 800 children lost a parent when hundreds of first responders died in the September 11 attacks, and one of them, Cait Leavey, was just 10 years old when she attended a Thanksgiving gathering organized for those families that same year. Twenty-five years later, she still returns to it every November, and so do dozens of other families whose first responder parents never came home.
A Breakfast That Became a Movement
The tradition traces back to Al Kahn, a media executive known for helping popularize Pokémon globally, who organized a gathering for children of fallen first responders after 9/11, according to Spectrum News NY1. Kahn rented the ESPN Zone along the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route that year and invited families of fallen 9/11 first responders to watch the parade with their children. Speaking to GovX, Kahn recalled, “We had over 1,300 in attendance that day.”
Kahn has said his own history shaped the effort: he lost his father as a child on Christmas morning, per the same GovX interview. A year after that first Thanksgiving breakfast, he started the First Responders Children's Foundation, which began with scholarships and later expanded into emergency grants, the outlet reported.
From One Breakfast to Nationwide Support
The foundation now serves families around the country whose first responder parents have died, per Spectrum News NY1's reporting, and its stated mission has grown well beyond that original gathering. According to the foundation's own site, its Scholarship Program helps children of first responders achieve their goals, while its Resiliency Program offers free confidential counseling. The First Responders Children's Foundation also says it offers bereavement assistance to ease a family's burden and provides financial grants to individuals and public safety agencies.
The organization helps families pay for funerals and make rent payments, and it provides mental health services for children and families, Spectrum News NY1 reported. Its Toy Express program delivers free toys to children in first responder communities during the holiday season, and per the GovX interview, the foundation has given away nearly 200,000 toys since it began. Kahn told GovX that since 2001, the foundation's services have affected more than 700,000 families and 1.4 million children nationwide.
A Daughter's Reason to Keep Coming Back
Among the families still connected to the tradition is Cait Leavey, the daughter of firefighter Joseph Leavey, who died in the South Tower after United Airlines Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center. Leavey said attending the gathering was important because her father had done that with her every year, and that being around other children who shared similar experiences mattered to her, according to Spectrum News NY1's report.
Another family connected to the foundation includes the relatives of Moira Smith, an NYPD officer who died on 9/11. Her daughter, Patricia Smith, attended law school with support from the foundation, per the outlet's reporting. Kahn said the families involved have grown over the years and now include grandchildren, though he also acknowledged the foundation cannot help everyone.
Heading Into a 25th Year
The foundation says on its website that it is entering its 25th year, and per Spectrum News NY1, Kahn is expected to attend the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade again this fall, continuing a tradition where some families attend every year and others have returned to watch the parade each November for a quarter century. Kahn told GovX the foundation now brings roughly 1,500 guests to the parade through a play zone and toy giveaway.
A June news release from the foundation, distributed via PR Newswire, described the organization's work as having expanded over 25 years to include scholarships, financial assistance, mental health services, natural disaster relief and community engagement. Research has separately noted that first responders are generally considered to face greater risk for full or partial post-traumatic stress disorder than many other occupations, according to a study indexed on PubMed, underscoring the kind of strain the foundation's counseling programs are meant to address for the families left behind.
