Kathy Cunningham, sister of Donald W. Robertson, Jr., tells ‘Fox & Friends’ she is honoring and reading her brother’s name at the 9/11 ceremony.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
35 year Old Donald Robinson,
35 year old, Donald Robinson
Jr, a father of four,
there is his picture right
there. He was working in the
north tower of the World Trade
Center when he died on the
morning of September 11th, two thousand and eleven.
Here we are nineteen years later. His
sister continues to keep his
memory alive
and will read his name during
the tunnel to Towers foundation
ceremony here in New York City
later this morning.
Her name is Cathy Cunningham and
she joins us, live from lower
Manhattan near ground zero.
Good morning, Cathy
hey good Morning,
Ainsley.
Thank you for having me here
today.
You are welcome.
Tell us, walk us through that
day,
how nine slash eleven changed your familys
life.
Well, we suffered an
incredible loss, as did almost
three thousand other families.
My brother was a 35 year old
father of four
and worked Fitzgerald on the
105th floor for the division.
He left with a whole huge in our
heart,
determines to keep his memory
alive,
thats why we are here, reading
names and keeping all of those
two thousand nine hundred and seventy seven souls in our memory today,
Ainsley holding up a child
tell us about your brother,
personal life. Just more about
him.
My brother was larger than
life.
The life of the party
lit up the room.
He was the guy that called the
cab. If you needed a cab
paid your bill
quietly paid a debt for a family
member.
He was large but quiet at the
same time with his kindness
and when he left us, we had no
other than to keep memory alive,
working to the tunnel to towers
foundation. That has given me a
platform to honor him and do him
proud. I hope
I know you are a board member on
tunnel two towers on their board,
and you just mentioned the team
tunnel. Two towers always have this
one. Every year, Frank always
comes on to talk about it.
Tell us what your family does. I
know its the largest team and
why you named it team green on
the Shamrock team. I started out
as a single fundraiser here as a
foundation.
It grew and grew and grew, and I
knew I needed to ramp it up a
bit
in honor of Donnie. We created
team shamrock.
My brother had a shamrock tattoo
on his hip, which he loved to
show everyone
thats how team Shamrock came to
be.
We have over five hundred run or walkers
every year with our New York
City event,
and we raise a lot of money,
and you know what we do with the
money that we raise
great great stuff.
We make a difference in our
military in our first
responders in our gold star
families
thats our obligation
Ainsley. I know he never got to
go to Ireland.
That was dream.
You are carrying out some other
dreams for families, because you
are doing so much for this great
organization.
What was your reaction when you
heard the memorial decided this
year because of code? We want to
stay safe.
We are not going to allow family
members to read the names
right.
Well, I cant lie.
I was exceedingly disappointed.
I come here every year.
This is hallowed ground.
This is sacred ground.
This is all we have
those of us. I mean we never
recovered my brother.
So when I come here- and I read
his name-
it is cathartic, it
is healing,
and I love to be around the
other families as well, would all
share that same hole.
Our heart,
when I heard the names werent
being read
disappointed.
I didnt understand it
because I have to give kudos to
the memorial and the mayor and
everybody that put on a good
show Mayor Bloomberg.
They put on a good show every
year over at the memorial
it was seamless,
they had a great blueprint
when they eliminated that I was
really disappointed and when
Frank Siller, he does it all
frank. He is amazing
when he picked up the ball and
ran with that. I was so proud to
be a party of this
Ainsley. We remember your
brother Donald W Robertson Jr.
Today
we will hear his name being read
out loud now because of tunnel two
towers.
Thank you so much Cathy for
keeping his legacy alive and
being on with us this morning.
Transcript generated on 2020-09-11.